LiBftARY 

UK^^veRS^TY  OP 

SAN  m^Go 


IN  FR£^SS, 


AND  WILL  BE  PUBLISHED  IN  DECEMBER. 


Boston  Monda  y  Lectures: 


oi^Ts:or)02C"Y". 

By  Joseph  Cook. 
One  volume  i2mo,  uniform  with  this  volume.     $1.50. 


%*  Now  ready  the  Twelfth  Thousand  of  "Biology,"  by  the  same 
author,     i  vol.  izmo.    $\.%o. 


JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  CO. 


Publishers. 


/  7W^ 


Boston  Monday  Lectures. 


TRANSCENDENTALISM, 


WITH 


PRELUDES   ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 


By  JOSEPH   COOK. 


"  They  who  reject  the  testimony  of  the  self-evident  truths  will  find 
nothing  surer  on  which  to  build."  —  Aristotle. 


BOSTON: 
JAMES    R.    OSGOOD    AND    COMPANY. 

(Latb  Ticknor  &  Fields,  and  Fields,  Osgood,  &  Co.) 
1878, 


Copyright,  1877, 

By    JOSEPH    COOK. 

All  Rights  Reserved. 


(cl^ 


FRANKLIN    PRESS: 

RAND,    AVSRY,    AND   COMPANY, 

BOSTON. 


INTEODUCTIOF. 


The  object  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectures  is  to  present  the 
results  of  the  freshest  Grerman,  English,  and  American  scholar- 
ship on  the  more  important  and  difficult  topics  concerning  the 
relation  of  Eeligion  and  Science. 

They  were  begun  in  the  Meionaon  in  1ST5 ;  and  the  audiences, 
gathered  at  noon  on  Mondays,  were  of  such  size  as  to  need  to  be 
transferred  to  Park-street  Church  in  October,  1876,  and  thence  to 
Tremont  Temple,  which  was  often  more  than  full  during  the 
winter  of  1STG-T7. 

The  audiences  contained  large  numbers  of  ministers,  teachers, 
and  other  educated  men. 

The  thirty-five  lectures  of  the  last  season  were  stenogi-aphically 
reported  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  and  most  of  them  were 
republished  in  full  in  New  York  and  London. 

The  lectures  on  Biology  oppose  the  materialistic,  and  not  the 
theistic,  theoiy  of  Evolution. 

The  lectures  on  Transcendentalism  contain  a  discussion  of  the 
views  of  Theodore  Parker. 

The  Committee  having  charge  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectures 
for  the  coming  year  consists  of  the  following  gentlemen :  — 


His    Excellency   A.    H.  Rice, 

Governor  of  Massachusetts. 
Hon.  Alpheus  Hakdt. 

Hon.     "WrLLIAM     CLAFLrN^,     Ex- 

Govemor  of  ]\Iassachusetts. 

Prof.  E.  P.  Gould,  Newton  The- 
ological Institute. 

Rev.  .J.  L.  WiTHKOW,  D.D. 

Reuben  Crooke. 

Rev.  "WrLLiAii  ]M.  Baker,  D.D. 

Russell  Stukgis,  Jr. 

E.  M.  McPhersox. 

Boston,  September,  1877. 


Prof.  Edwards  A.  Park,  LL.D., 
Andover  Thelogical  Seminary. 

Right  Rev.  Bishop  Foster. 

Prof.  L.  T.  Townsekd,  Boston 
University. 

Robert  Gilchrist. 

SiVJviUEL  Johnson. 

Rev.  Z.  Gray,  D.D.,  Episcopal 
Theological  School,  Cambridge. 

■William  B.  Merrill. 

M.  H.  Sargent. 

M.  R.  Deming,  Secretary. 

Henry  F.  Durant,  Chairman. 


^ 


PUBLISHEES'  NOTE. 


In  the  careful  reports  of  Mr.  Cook's  Lectures  printed 
in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  were  included  by  the 
stenographer  sundiy  expressions  (applause,  &c.)  indicat- 
ing the  immediate  and  varying  impressions  wdth  which  the 
Lectures  were  received.  Though  these  reports  have  been 
thoroughly  revised  by  the  author,  the  pubhshers  have 
thought  it  advisable  to  retain  these  expressions.  Mr. 
Cook's  audiences  included,  in  large  numbers,  representa- 
tives of  the  broadest  scholarship,  the  profoundest  philoso- 
phy, the  acutest  scientific  research,  and  generally  of  the 
finest  intellectual  culture,  of  Boston  and  New  England ; 
and  it  has  seemed  admissible  to  aUow  the  larger  assembly 
to  which  these  Lectures  are  now  addressed  to  know  how 
they  were  received  by  such  audiences  as  those  to  which 
they  were  originally  delivered. 


go:ntents. 


LECTURES. 

PAGE 

I.  Intuition,  Instinct,  Expekeuent,  Syllogism,  as 

Tests  of  Tkuth 1 

n.    Transcendentalism  in  New  England  ....  27 

TTT.    Theodoke  Parker's  Absolute  Religion  ...  53 

IV.    Caricatured  Definitions  in  Religious  Science  83 

Y.    Theodore  Parker  on  the  Guilt  of  Sin  .    .    .  109 

VI.    Final  Perjianence  op  Moral  Character    .    .  135 

VII.    Can  a  Perfect  Being  permit  Evil  ?     ....  105 

VIII.    The   Religion   required   by   the   Nature    of 

Thlngs, 191 

IX.    Theodore  Parker  on  Communion  with  God  as 

Personal 219 

X.    The  Trinity  and  Tritheism 247 

XI.    Fkagmentariness  of  Outlook  upon  the  Divine 

Nature 277 

PRELUDES. 

FAOB 

I.    The  Children  of  the  Perishing  Po6r.    ...  3 

II.  The  Failure  of  Strauss' s  Mythical  Theory  .  29 
III.  Chalmers's  Remedy  for  the  Evils  of  Cities  .  55 
rV.    Mexicanized  Politics 85 

V.    Yale,  Harvard,  and  Boston Ill 

VI.    The  Right  Direction  of  the  Religiously  Ir- 
resolute    137 

VII.    Religious  Conversation 167 

VIII.    George  Whitefield  in  Boston 193 

IX.    Circe's  Cup  in  Cities 221 

X.    Civil  Service  Reform 249 

XL    Plymouth   Rock   as   the   Corner-Stone  op  a 

Factory 279 


^ 


T. 

LNTUITION,  INSTINCT,  EXPERIMENT,  SYLLOGISM, 
AS  TESTS  OF  TRUTH. 

THE    FIFTY-NINTU    LECTUKE     IN     THE    BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,   DELIVERED    IN    TREMONT    TEMPLE,    JAN.    1. 


"  He  would  be  thonglit  void  of  common  sense  who  asked  on  the 
one  side,  or,  on  the  other,  went  to  give,  a  reason  why  it  is  impossible 
for  the  same  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be."  — Locke:  j;ssa?/.  Book  i. 
chap.  iii. 

"  There  is  here  a  confession,  the  importance  of  which  has  been 
observed  neither  by  Locke  nor  his  antagonists.  In  thus  appealing 
to  common  sense  or  intellect,  he  was  in  fact  surrendering  his  thesis, 
that  all  our  knowledge  is  an  educt  from  experience.  For  in  ad- 
mitting, as  he  here  virtually  does,  that  experience  must  ultimately 
ground  its  procedure  on  the  laws  of  intellect,  he  admits  that  intellect 
contains  principles  of  jixdgment,  on  which  experience  being  depend- 
ent, cannot  possibly  be  their  precursor  or  their  cause.  What  Locke 
here  calls  common  sense  he  elsewhere  denominates  intuition."  — 
Sir  William  Hamilton:  Reid's  Collected  Writings,  vol.  ii.  p.  784. 


TEANSCENDENTALISM. 


I. 


INTUITION,  INSTINCT,  EXPERIMENT,  SYL- 
LOGISM, AS  TESTS  OF  TRUTH. 

PRELUDE   ON   CURRENT   EVENTS. 

Unless  the  children  of  the  dangerous  and  perish- 
ing classes  are  to  blame  for  being  born,  they,  at  least, 
whatever  we  say  of  their  parents,  cannot  be  shut  out 
from  a  victorious  place  in  our  pity.  This  is  a  festal 
day ;  and,  if  the  Author  of  Christianity  were  on  the 
groaning  earth  to  make  calls,  probably  the  most  of 
them,  in  the  cities  of  the  world,  would  be  in  unfash- 
ionable places.  Why  should  we  be  so  shy  of  the 
visitation  in  person  of  death-traps  and  rookeries  ? 
There  is  ineffable  authority  and  example  for  going 
from  house  to  house  doing  good.  Visits  thus  en- 
joined cannot  be  made  by  proxy.  No  doubt  organ- 
ized and  unorganized  charity  is  usually,  in  its  modern 
form,  a  result  of  the  Christian  spirit.  Celsus  said 
Christianity  could  not  be  divine,  because  it  cared 
insanely  for  the  poor.  Old  Rome's  mood  toward  the 
miserable  the  world  of  culture  now  loathes.  Philan- 
thropy swells  the  tide  of  commiseration  for  the  un- 


4  TKANSCENDENTALISM. 

fortunate;  and  sometimes  the  most  erratic  opinions 
have  been  conjoined  with  the  soundest  behavior 
toward  those  who  have  hardly  where  to  lay  their 
heads.  Orthodoxy  itself  is  often  shy  of  personal  con- 
tact with  the  very  wretched,  and  goes  from  house  to 
house  by  proxy.  Organized  charity,  we  think,  is  the 
whole  of  our  duty.  But  Thomas  Guthrie,  and  Dr. 
Chalmers,  and  all  who  have  had  much  to  do  with 
the  perishing  classes  in  great  cities,  have  taught  the 
Church,  that,  when  men  are  sick  and  in  prison,  they 
are  to  be  visited.  I  know  a  great  orator  in  this  city, 
whose  name  is  a  power  from  sea  to  sea,  and  whose  sil- 
vering honored  head  often  bends  over  couch  and 
cradle  in  the  most  miserable  houses.  It  is  safe  to  go 
to  the  North  End  now :  it  is  not  safe  in  the  fiercest 
heats  of  summer. 

Our  North  winds  in  winter  strike  us  all  the  way 
from  Boothia  Felix,  and  their  iciness  seals  some 
fever-dens,  whose  doors  swing  wide  open  every  sum- 
mer under  the  guardianship,  as  one  must  suppose,  of 
the  negligence  of  the  Board  of  Health.  [Applause.] 
I  am  not  speaking  at  random ;  for,  according  to  the 
city  reports,  there  were  in  1876  sixty-eight  houses 
condemned  as  not  conforming  to  the  sanitary  regula- 
tions of  this  city ;  and  of  these  only  seventeen  were 
really  vacated;  the  rest  were  white-washed.  [Ap- 
plause.] The  truth  is,  that  if  there  were  ten  Boards 
of  Health,  and  if  they  all  did  their  duty,  we  could 
not  avoid  having  a  large  population  born  into  the 
world  miserable. 

This  nation  now  has  one-fifth  of  its  population  in 


TESTS   OF   TRUTH.  6 

cities.  Wliat  are  vre  to  do  with  the  social  barriers 
which  allow  a  great  city  to  be  not  only  a  great 
world,  but  ten  great  worlds,  in  which  one  world  does 
not  care  at  all  for  what  the  other  worlds  are  doing  ? 

In  every  great  town  there  are  six  or  ten  strata  in 
society ;  and  it  is,  one  would  think,  a  hundred  miles 
from  the  fashionable  to  the  unfashionable  side  of  a 
single  brick  in  a  wall.  Superfluity  and  squalor  know 
absolutely  nothing  of  each  other  —  such  is  the  utter 
negligence  of  the  duty  of  visiting  the  poor,  in  any 
other  way  than  by  agents.  I  do  not  undervalue 
these,  nor  any  part  of  the  great  charities  of  our 
times ;  but  there  is  no  complete  theory  for  the  per- 
manent relief  of  the  poor  without  personal  visitation. 
Go  from  street  to  street  with  the  city  missionary  or 
the  best  of  the  police ;  but  sometimes  go  all  alone, 
and  with  your  own  eyes  see  the  poor  in  the  attics, 
and  study  the  absolutely  unspeakable  conditions  of 
their  daily  lives.  Not  long  ago,  I  Avas  in  a  suffocated 
tenement-house  where  five  or  six  points  on  which  I 
could  put  my  hand  were  in  boldest  violation  of  the 
laws  which  it  is  the  business  of  the  Board  of  Health 
in  this  city  to  see  executed.  [Applause.]  The 
death-rate  of  Boston  in  summer,  in  the  North  End, 
is  often  above  thirty-five  in  the  thousand.  The  regis- 
trar-general of  England  says  that  any  deaths  above 
seventeen  in  a  thousand  are  unnecessary.  Live  one 
day  where  the  children  of  the  perishing  poor  live, 
and  ask  what  it  is  to  live  there  always.  I  know  a 
scholar  of  heroic  temper  and  of  exquisite  culture, 
who  recently  resolved   to  live  with  the  poor  in   a 


6.  TRANSCENDEiSrTALISM. 

stifling  part  of  this  city,  and  who,  after  repeated  and 
desperate  iUness,  was  obliged  to  move  his  home  off 
the  ground  in  order  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  putting 
his  body  underground.  You  cannot  understand  the 
poor  by  newspapers,  nor  even  by  novels. 

Our  distant  lavender  touches  of  the  miserable 
show  the  barbaric  blood  yet  in  our  veins.  Going 
about  from  house  to  house  doing  good  is  a  great 
Christian  measure  permanently  instituted  by  a  typi- 
cal example,  which  in  a  better  age  may  be  remem- 
bered, and  be  the  foundation  of  a  nobility  not  yet 
visible  on  the  planet.  There  was  One  who  washed 
his  disciples'  feet,  and  in  that  act  founded  an  order 
of  nobility;  but  this  second  symbolic  act  seems  not 
to  be  apprehended  even  yet  by  some  good  Samari- 
tans —  in  gloves.  The  way  from  Jerusalem  to  Jeri- 
cho lies  now  through  the  city  slums ;  and,  for  many 
an  age  to  come,  there  will  be  the  spot  where  men 
oftenest  will  be  left  stripped  and  sore  and  half  dead. 
We  want  all  good  influences  of  the  parlor  and  press, 
from  literature  and  the  interior  church  of  the  church, 
to  work  upon  the  problem  of  saving  the  perishing 
and  dangerous  classes  in  great  cities.     [Applause.] 

Poor  naked  wretches,  wliereso'er  you  are, 

That  bide  the  i:)eltmg  of  this  pitiless  storm, 

How  shall  yoiu-  houseless  heads  and  unfed  sides, 

Your  looped  and  windowed  raggedness,  defend  you 

From  seasons  such  as  this?    Take  physic,  pomp; 

Expose  thyself  to  feel  what  wi'etches  feel, 

That  thou  mayst  shake  the  superflux  to  them, 

And  show  the  heavens  more  just. 

Lear,  act  iii.  so.  iv. 

[Applause] . 


TESTS   OF  TRUTH. 


THE  LECTURE. 

Napoleon  I.,  one  day  riding  in  advance  of  his  army, 
came  to  a  bridgeless  river,  which  it  was  necessary 
that  his  hosts  should  immediately  cross  on  a  forced 
march.  "  Tell  me,"  said  the  great  emperor  to  his 
engineer, "  the  breadth  of  this  stream."  —  "  Sire,  I  can- 
not," was  the  reply.  "  My  scientific  instruments  are 
with  the  army ;  and  we  are  ten  miles  ahead  of  it." 
—  "  Measure  the  breadth  of  this  stream  instantly."  — 
"  Sire,  be  reasonable."  —  "  Ascertain  at  once  the  width 
of  this  river,  or  you  shall  be  deposed  from  your  office." 
The  engineer  drew  down  the  cap-piece  on  his  helmet 
till  the  edge  of  it  just  touched  the  opposite  bank ; 
and  then,  holding  himself  erect,  turned  upon  his 
heel,  and  noticed  where  the  cap-piece  touched  the 
bank  on  which  he  stood.  lie  then  paced  the  dis- 
tance from  his  position  to  the  latter  point,  and  turned 
to  the  emperor  saying,  "  This  is  the  breadth  of  the 
stream  approximately ; "  and  he  was  promoted. 
Now,  in  all  the  marches  of  thought,  metaphysical 
science  measures  the  breadth  of  streams  with  scien- 
tific instruments,  indeed ;  but  it  uses  no  principles 
which  men  of  common  sense,  at  their  firesides,  or  in 
politics,  or  before  juries,  or  in  business,  do  not  recog- 
nize as  authoritative.  Your  Napoleon's  enginceer, 
after  his  instruments  came  up,  no  doubt  made  a  more 
accurate  measurement  than  he  had  done  by  his  skil- 
ful expedient  of  common  sense ;  but  the  ncAV  and 
exact  determination  of  the  distance  must  have  pro- 
ceeded upon  precisely  the  same  principle  by  which 


8  TRA^SrSCENDENTALISM. 

he  liad  made  liis  approximate  calculation.  Both  the 
estimates  would  turn  on  the  scientific  certainty  that 
the  radii  of  a  circle  are  equal.  The  distance  to  the 
opposite  bank  is  one  radius  in  a  circle,  of  which  the 
position  of  the  observer  is  the  centre  ;  and,  if  now  he 
wheels  round  the  radius,  of  course  the  radius  here  is 
just  as  long  as  the  radius  yonder;  for  things  wliich 
are  equal  to  the  same  thing  are  equal  to  each  other. 
The  most  exact  instruments  ever  invented  would 
have  behind  them  only  that  incontrovertible,  axio- 
matic, self-evident  truth.  You  can  measure  a  river 
in  the  way  Napoleon's  engineer  did ;  but  you  think 
that  research  of  the  metaphysical  sort  has  something 
in  it  incomprehensible,  mystical,  and  suspicious.  Let 
us  not  stand  in  too  much  awe  of  the  theodolite.  As 
the  engineer's  final  measurement  of  the  river  with 
scientific  instruments  was  simply  his  pacing  made 
exact,  so  metaphysics  is  simply  common  sense  made 
exact. 

After  three  months  on  Evolution,  Materialism,  and 
Immortality,  the  current  of  discussion  in  this  Lec- 
tureship enters  on  a.  new  vista ;  but  the  river  is  the 
same,  for  it  flows  out  of  that  tropical  land  of  Biology 
we  have  been  traversing  together,  and  the  chief 
theme  is  always  the  relations  of  religion  and  science. 
It  will  yet  be  our  duty  to  meditate  on  the  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  of  evolution  to  philosophy,  and 
espec-ally  to  ethics;  fori  am  now  bidding  adieu  to 
IVIaterialism  as  a  topic,  and  am  approaching  Tran- 
scendentalism, and  so  Conscience,  and  so  the  natural 
conditions  of  the  peace  of  the  soul  with  itself  and 


TESTS   OP  TEUTH.  9 

•witli  the  plan  wliicli  inheres  in  the  nature  of  tilings ; 
that  is,  with  God. 

Here,  as  everywhere,  religious  science,  like  every 
other  science,  asks  you  to  grant  nothing  but  axio- 
matic truth.  In  considering  Transcendentalism,  or 
axiomatic  tests  of  certainty,  I  must  seem,  therefore, 
to  be  almost  transcendentalistic  at  first ;  for  such  is 
and  must  be  all  sound  thought,  up  to  a  certain  point. 
I  am  no  pantheist ;  I  am  no  individualist ;  I  am  no 
mere  theist,  I  hope :  but  so  far  forth  as  Transcen- 
dentalism founds  itself  upon  what  Aristotle  and 
Kant  and  Hamilton  have  called  intuition,  self-evident 
truths,  axioms,  first  principles,  I  am  willing  to  call 
myself  a  transcendentalist,  not  of  the  rationalistic, 
but  of  the  Kantian,  Hamiltonian,  and  Coleridgian 
school. 

Both  wings  of  the  army  front  of  Transcendental- 
ism must  be  studied,  and  it  will  be  found  that  it  is 
only  the  left  or  rationalistic  wing  that  has  been  of 
late  thrown  into  panic.  That  serried  and  scattered 
and  very  brave  host  made  bold  marches  in  Boston 
thirty  years  ago.  Its  leaders  now  confess  that  it  has 
been  substantially  defeated.  It  is  time  for  the  right 
wing  and  centre  to  move.  This  portion  of  Transcen- 
dentalism never  broke  with  Christianity:  the  other 
portion  did ;  and  to-day,  according  to  its  own  admis- 
sion, is  not  only  not  victorious,  but  dispirited  (Froth- 
ingliam.  Transcendentalism  in  New  England,  ^j'assi??;)- 
Its  historians  speak  of  it  as  a  thing  of  the  past.  Self- 
evident  truths,  axioms,  necessary  beliefs,  however, 
can  never  go  out  of  fashion;   they  can  be  opposed 


10  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

only  by  being  assumed ;  they  are  a  dateless  and  etei*- 
nal  noon. 

JNIr.  Emerson's  theoretical  tests  of  truth  are  the 
intuitions  or  axioms  of  the  soul,  and  undoubtedly 
these  are  the  tests  which  the  acutest  philosophical 
science  of  the  world  now  justifies,  and  has  always 
justified.  Whether  the  tests  themselves  justify  pan- 
theism, whether  they  give  countenance  to  individ- 
ualism like  Mr.  Emerson's,  whether  they  establish 
mere  theism,  are  grave  and  great  questions  that  can- 
not be  discussed  here  and  now,  but  which  we  shall 
reach  at  the  proper  time.  The  whole  of  metaphys- 
ics, the  whole  philosophy  of  evolution,  the  whole  of 
materialism,  the  whole  of  every  thing  that  calls  itself 
scientific,  must  submit  itself  to  certain  first  truths  ; 
and  therefore,  on  these  first  truths  we  must  fasten 
the  microscope  with  all  the  eagerness  of  those  who 
wish  to  feel  beneath  them,  somewhere  in  the  yeasting 
foam  of  modern  speculation,  a  deck  that  is  tremorless. 

What  is  an  intuition? 

Theodore  Parker  held  that  we  have  an  "  instinc- 
tive intuition "  of  the  Divine  Existence,  and  of 
immortality,  and  of  the  authority  of  the  moral  law. 
He  constantly  assumed  that  these  facts  are  intuitive 
or  self-evident,  and  as  incontrovertible  as  the  propo- 
sition that  every  change  must  have  an  adequate 
cause.  He  used  the  word  "  intuition  "  carelessly,  and 
did  not  carefully  distinguish  intuition  and  instinct 
from  each  other.  Very  often,  in  otherwise  brilliant 
literature,  this  vacillating  and  obscure  use  of  the 
word  "  intuition  "  leads  to  most  mischievous  coiifu- 


TESTS   OF   TRUTH.  11 

sion  of  thought.  We  are  told  that  woman's  intui- 
tions are  better  in  many  respects  than  man's ;  we  are 
assured  that  the  intuitions  of  childhood  are  purer, 
clearer,  or  more  nearly  unadulterated,  than  those  of 
middle  life  :  in  short,  our  popular,  and  many  of  our 
scientific  discussions,  so  far  as  these  proceed  from 
persons  who  have  had  no  distinctively  metaphysical 
traininsT,  use  the  word  "intuition"  with  the  moL.t 
bewilderinET  looseness.  Individualism  is  justified  by 
intuition ;  pantheism,  mere  theism,  orthodoxy,  or 
whatever  a  man  feels,  or  seems  to  feel,  to  be  true,  he 
says  his  intuitions  affirm.  There  are  those  who  con- 
fuse intuition,  not  only  with  instinct,  but  with  mere 
insight;  that  is,  with  an  imaginative  or  reflective 
swiftness  or  emotional  force,  which,  by  glancing  at 
truth,  catches  its  outlines  better  than  by  laborious 
plodding.  The  loftiest  arrogance  of  individualism 
justifies  itself  often  simply  by  calling  its  idiosyncra- 
sies intuitions.  In  all  ages  mysticism  of  the  devout- 
est  school  has  frequently  made  the  same  wild  mis- 
take. Gleams  of  radiance  across  the  inner  heavens 
of  the  great  poetic  souls  of  the  race  we  must  rever- 
ence ;  but  shooting-stars  are  not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  eternally  fixed  constellations.  Undoubted- 
ly a  single  flash  of  lightning  from  the  swart,  thunder- 
ous summer  midnight,  often  ingrains  the  memory  of 
a  landscape  more  durably  on  the  memory  than  the 
beating  of  many  summer  noons ;  but  even  lightning 
glances  are  not  intuitions. 

Our  first  business  then,  my  friends,  will  be  to  ob- 
tain a  distinct  definition  of  the  strategic  word  "  intui- 


12  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tion."  This  is  a  scientific  teclmical  term ;  and,  when 
correctly  used  as  such,  has  outlines  as  clearly  cut  as 
those  of  a  crystal. 

We  must  approach  the  definition  in  a  way  that 
will  carry  all  minds  with  us,  step  by  step. 

1.  It  is  possible  to  imagine  all  the  articles  in  this 
room  to  be  annihilated,  or  not  in  existence. 

You  feel  very  sure,  do  you  not,  as  you  cast  a 
glance  on  the  capacities  of  your  mind,  that  you  can 
believe  that  these  articles  might  never  have  existed ; 
and  so  of  all  other  objects  that  fill  space  ?  Orion 
flames  in  our  skies  now ;  but  you  can  at  least  imagine 
that  this  constellation  might  never  have  been.  The 
Seven  Stars  we  can  suppose  to  be  annihilated.  I  do 
not  mean  that  we  can  prove  matter  to  be  destructi- 
ble, but  that  we  can  imagine  its  non-existence.  You 
are  entirely  certain  of  your  mental  capacity  to  im- 
agine the  non-existence  of  any  material  object  in  any 
part  of  space. 

2.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  the  si^ace  in  this 
room  to  be  annihilated,  or  not  in  existence. 

Notice  the  strange  fact  that  you  cannot  so  much 
as  imagine  the  annihilation  of  a  corner  of  the  space 
in  this  room.  You  bring  down  in  thought  the  space 
from  one  corner,  as  you  would  roll  up  a  thick  cur- 
tain ;  but  you  have  left  space  behind,  up  yonder  in 
the  corner.  You  lift  up  this  floor  and  bring  down 
the  ceiling :  but  you  have  left  space  beneath  and 
above.  You  draw  in  all  four  sides  of  this  temple  at 
once,  and  cause  its  dimensions  to  diminish  equally  in 
every  direction ;  but  in  every  direction  you  have  left 


TESTS   OF  TRUTH.  13 

space.  If  you  go  out  into  infinite  space  with  the  best 
exorcism  of  your  magic,  if  you  whip  it  as  Xerxes 
whipped  the  ocean,  you  will  find  your  heaviest  lashes 
as  unavailing  as  his.  No  part  of  space  can  even  be 
imaecined  not  to  be  in  existence.  We  cannot  so  much 
as  imagine  that  the  space  through  which  Orion  and 
the  Seven  Stars  wander  should  not  be ;  by  no  possi- 
bility can  you  in  thought  get  rid  of  it,  although  you 
easily  get  rid  of  them.  That  is  a  very  curious  fact 
in  the  mind. 

3.  It  is  possible  to  suppose  all  the  events  since  sun- 
rise not  to  have  taken  place. 

I  know  not  but  that  at  this  moment  the  English 
fleet  lately  in  the  Bosphorus  is  floating  across  the 
purple  ripples  of  the  Piraeus  harbor  at  Athens,  in 
sight  of  the  Acropolis.  It  may  be  that  the  Russians 
are  commencing  a  march  upon  Turkey.  But  what- 
ever has  happened  since  sunrise  I  can  imagine  not 
to  have  happened  at  all.  It  is  perfectly  easy  for  me, 
in  thought,  to  vacate  all  time  of  all  events.  Any 
thing  that  has  taken  place  in  time  may  be  imagined 
not  to  have  taken  place.  We  can  imagine  the  non- 
existence of  whatever  we  call  an  event. 

4.  It  is  impossible  to  suppose  any  portion  of  the 
duration  from  sunrise  to  the  present  moment  not  to 
have  existed. 

If  you  will  try  the  experiment  with  yourselves, 
and  analyze  your  minds,  you  will  find  that  it  is  really 
impossible  to  think  of  any  portion  of  duration  as 
annihilated.  You  annihilate  an  hour,  as  you  say  ;  but 
there  is  a  gap  left,  and  it  is  an  hour  long.     You  anni- 


14  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

hilate  an  age  in  the  flow  of  the  eternities,  and  there 
is  a  gap  of  an  age  there.  If  you  will  simply  notice 
your  own  thoughts,  you  will  find  that  in  this  case,  as 
in  the  case  of  space,  we  strike  upon  a  most  marvellous 
circumstance.  The  mind  is  so  made,  that  it  is  not 
capable  even  of  imagining  the  non-existence  of  time 
or  of  space.  There  are  hundreds  of  proofs  of  this  ; 
and  those  who  hold  the  materialistic  philosophy  do 
not  deny  the  existence  of  this  necessity  in  the  human 
mind.  They  explain  its  origin  and  meaning  in  a  way 
that  I  do  not  think  clear  at  all ;  but  they,  with  all 
men  who  understand  their  own  mental  operations, 
admit  that  all  events  and  all  objects  we  may  annihi- 
late in  thought,  but  not  space,  not  time.  Moreover, 
we  are  convinced  that  always  there  was  space,  and 
always  there  will  be  ;  that  always  there  was  time, 
and  always  there  will  be. 

5.  It  is  possible  to  believe  that  any  effect  or 
change  that  has  taken  place  might  not  have  taken 
place. 

6.  It  is  hnpossihle  to  believe  that  any  change  can 
have  taken  place  witlwut  a  cause. 

This  latter  is  an  amazing  but  wholly  incontroverti- 
ble fact  in  the  mind. 

Our  idea  of  the  connection  of  cause  and  effect  is 
equally  clear  with  our  ideas  concerning  space  and 
time ;  and  the  axiom  which  asserts  that  every  change 
must  have  a  sufficient  cause  is  not  a  merely  identical 
proposition  either.  I  know  that  materialistic  schools 
in  philosophy  are  often  saying  that  most  axioms  are 
simply  equations  between  different    expressions  for 


TESTS   OF   TRUTH.  15 

the  same  thought.  Whatever  is,  is.  That,  undoubt- 
edly, is  an  identical  proposition.  It  means  simpl}^  as 
Jolin  Stuart  Mill  said,  that,  when  any  proposition  is 
true  in  one  form  of  words,  we  have  a  right  to  affirm 
the  same  thing  in  any  other  form  of  words.  But 
take  an  axiom  which  is  not  an  identical  proposition, 
and  that  is  admitted  even  by  materialists  not  to  be 
one :  the  proposition  that  the  equals  of  equals  are 
equal  to  each  other.  (See  Baix,  Professor  A., 
Mental  and  Moral  Science,  English  edition,  p.  187.) 
You  feel  perfectly  sure  about  that ;  you  cannot  be 
made  to  believe  that  that  is  not  true.  Take  the  prop- 
osition, that  every  change  not  only  7ias,  but  must  have, 
an  adequate  cause,  and  that  is  by  no  means  an  iden- 
tical proposition.  What  is  beyond  the  verb  there 
does  not  mean  only  what  that  does  which  is  on  the 
first  side  of  the  verb.  An  identical  proposition  is 
simply  an  equation :  what  is  on  the  left  side  of  tlie 
verb  means  just  what  that  does  which  is  on  the  right 
of  the  verb.  But  in  the  proposition,  that  every 
change  has  and  must  have  an  adequate  cause,  these 
words  on  the  right  of  the  verb  do  not  express  just 
the  meaning  of  the  words  on  the  left ;  and  yet  you 
are  perfectly  sure  of  the  connection  between  these 
two  phrases.  Not  only  has,  but  must,  you  and  all 
men  put  in  there  ;  and  you  are  sure  about  that  vast 
double  assertion.  For  all  time  past,  and  all  time  to 
come,  that  is  an  axiom,  you  say,  not  only  for  this 
globe,  but  for  the  sun,  and  the  Seven  Stars,  and 
Orion.  You  are  sure  about  that  truth ;  and,  if  you 
try    ever    so    skilfully,  you    cannot    make  yourself 


16  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

believe  but  that  every  change  must  have  an  adequate 
cause  ;  and  yet,  if  you  try  to  prove  that  proposition, 
you  cannot  do  it  by  any  thing  that  does  not  assume 
it.  It  is  not  only  evident :  it  is  self-evident.  It  is 
not  evident  through  any  other  truth.  It  is  a  primi- 
tive and  not  a  derivative  truth.  It  is  a  first  truth. 
Nevertheless,  although  there  is  no  demonstration  of 
that  proposition,  except  by  looking  directly  on  it,  or 
the  supremest  kind  of  demonstration, — absolute  men- 
tal touch, — you  are  sure  that  it  is  true  not  only  here, 
but  everywhere;  not  only  now,  but  forever.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

7.  The  ideas  of  space  and  time  are  called  in  phi- 
losophy necessary  ideas. 

8.  The  belief  in  the  connection  of  cause  and  effect 
is  called  in  philosophy  a  necessary  belief. 

9.  All  real  axioms  are  necessary  truths. 

10.  All  necessary  truths  are  not  only  evident,  but 
self-evident. 

You  may  say  that  the  proposition  that  it  is  two 
thousand  feet  from  here  to  the  gilded  dome  yonder 
is  evident,  but  not  that  it  is  self-evidetit.  You  ascer- 
tain the  distance  by  measurement  and  reasoning. 
But  it  is  self-evident  that  the  shortest  distance  be- 
tween this  point  and  that  is  a  straight  line.  On  that 
proposition  you  do  not  reason  at  all ;  and  yet  you 
are  unalterably  sure  of  it. 

11.  Self-evident  and  necessary  truths  are  univer- 
sally true  ;  that  is,  everywhere  and  in  all  time. 

We  feel  sure  that  it  is,  always  was,  and  always  will 
be  true  that  a  whole  is  greater  than  a  part,  and  that 


TESTS   OF  TRUTH.  1? 

the  Slims  of  equals  are  equals ;  that  a  thing  cannot 
be  and  not  be  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
sense.  We  are  confident  that  these  laws  hold  good 
here,  and  in  Orion,  and  everywhere. 

We  arrive  thus  at  an  incisive  definition :  — 

12.  An  {ntuition  is  a  truth  self-evident,  necessary/, 
and  universal. 

It  is  a  proposition  having  these  three  traits,  —  self- 
evidence,  necessity,  and  universality. 

13.  Since  Aristotle,  these  three  have  been  the 
established  tests  of  intuitive  truths.  (See  Sm  Wel- 
LiA^r  Ha3IILT0n's  celebrated  Note  A,  Appendix  to 
Reid's  Works.') 

14.  An  intuition  is  to  be  distinguished  from  an 
instinct.  The  latter  is  an  impulse  or  propensity 
existing  independent  of  instruction,  and  prior  to 
experience. 

15.  An  intuition  is  to  be  distinguished  from  in- 
sight, emotional,  reflective,  or  poetic. 

16.  An  intuition  is  to  be  distinguished  from  inspi- 
ration or  illumination,  sacred  or  secular. 

17.  In  scientific  discussion  any  use  of  the  word 
"  intuition  "  to  denote  other  than  a  proposition 
marked  by  self-evidence,  necessity,  and  universality, 
is  a  violation  of  established  usac^e. 

18.  The  supreme  question  of  philosophy  is  wheth- 
er the  self-evident,  necessary,  and  universal  truths  of 
the  mind  are  derived  from  experience,  or  are  a  part 
of  the  constitution  of  man  brought  into  activity  by 
experience,  but  not  derived  from  it,  nor  explicable  by 
it.     Do  these  self-evident  truths  arise  a  priori,  or  d 


18  TEAJSrSCENDENTALISM. 

posteriori ;  that  is,  do  they  exist  before  or  only  after 
experience  ? 

Up  to  this  point  we  are  all  agreed,  and  we  have 
attained  distinctness,  I  hope,  as  to  our  fundamental 
term.  From  this  point  onward  we  may  not  all 
agree ;  but  I  must  venture  these  further  proposi- 
tions :  — 

19.  This  fundamental  question  has  a  new  interest 
on  account  of  the  recent  advances  in  philosophy,  and 
especially  in  biology. 

20.  These  advances,  if  the  German  as  well  as  the 
English  field  is  kept  in  view,  favor  the  a  priori  or  the 
intuitional  school. 

On  one  point  there  is  no  debate  any  longer ;  namely, 
that  there  are  certain  truths  which  are  not  only  evi- 
dent, but  self-evident ;  wliich  are  absolutely  necessary 
beliefs  to  the  mind ;  and  which  are,  therefore,  univer- 
sal, both  in  the  sense  of  being  explicitly  or  implicitly 
held  by  all  sane  men,  and  in  that  of  being  true  in  all 
time  and  in  all  places.  (See  Mill's  admissions  pas- 
sim^  in  his  Examination  of  Hajviilton's  Philosophy.^ 
Immanuel  Kant  instituted  a  great  inquiry,you  remem- 
ber, as  to  the  origin  of  this  particular  class  of  truths, 
especially  of  those  which  are  not  identical  proposi- 
tions; and  now  I  beg  leave  to  ask  this  audience 
whether  it  is  not  worth  while  for  us  —  now  that  Ger- 
many has  gone  back  to  Immanuel  Kant,  and  dares 
to-day  build  no  metaphysical  superstructure  except 
on  his  foundations  or  their  equivalents — to  ask  over 
again,  in  the  light  of  all  the  recent  advances  of  bio- 
logical science,  the  supreme  question :  Are  the  self 


TESTS   OF   TRUTH.  19 

evident^  necessary^  and  universal  ideas  of  the  mind 
derived  solely  from  experience^  or  are  they  a  part  of  the 
original  furniture  of  the  soul,  not  derived  at  all  from 
sensuous  impressions  ?     [Applause.] 

I  am  quite  aware  that  Mr.  Frothingliam  of  New- 
York  City,  who  in  philosophy  seems  to  have  very 
little  outlook  beyond  the  North  Sea,  says  that  the 
Transcendentalism  of  which  he  is  the  historian  has 
for  the  present  had  its  day.  Here  is  his  graceful 
book ;  and,  although  it  is  only  a  sketch,  there  is 
large  meaning  between  its  lines  in  its  plaintive  under- 
tone of  failure.  This  coast  of  New  England  the 
Puritans  made  mellow  soil  for  all  seeds  promising  re- 
ligious fruitfulness.  Transcendentalism  rooted  itself 
swiftly  here  for  that  reason ;  but  the  effort  was  made 
to  bring  up  that  seed  to  the  dignity  of  a  tree  without 
any  sunlight  from  Christianity.  Mr.  Frothingham 
says  the  attempt  has  failed.  I  believe  the  seed,  if 
it  had  had  that  light,  might  have  lived  longer. 
[Applause.]  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  there  are 
two  classes  of  those  who  revere  axiomatic  truth,  — 
the  Kantian,  Hamiltonian,  and  Coleridgian  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  purely  rationalistic  on  the  other.  Mr. 
Frothingham  says  New-England  Transcendentalism 
deliberately  broke  with  Christianity;  but  in  that 
remark  he  overlooks  many  revered  names. 

His  own  school  in  Transcendentalism  was  indeed 
proud  to  shut  away  from  the  growth  of  the  seeds  of 
intuitive  truth  the  simlight  of  Christianity.  No  oak 
has  appeared  in  the  twilight ;  but  does  this  fact  prove 
that  the  tree  may  not  attain  stately  proportions  if 


20  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

nourished  by  the  noon  ?  Already  axiomatic  truth  is 
an  oak  that  dreads  no  storms ;  and  forests  of  it  to-day 
stand  in  Germany,  watered  by  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe, 
and  the  Oder;  and  one  day  similar  growths  will 
rustle  stalwart  in  New  England,  watered  by  the 
Mystic  and  the  Charles ;  and  the  stately  trees  will 
stand  on  the  Thames  at  last,  in  spite  of  its  grimy 
mists.  [Applause.]  There  will  be  for  Intuitionalism 
in  philosophy  a  great  day,  so  soon  as  men  see  that 
the  very  latest  philosophy  knows  that  there  is  a  soul 
external  to  the  nervous  mechanism,  and  that  materi- 
alism must  be  laid  aside  as  the  result  simply  of  lack 
of  education.     [Applause.] 

21.  The  positions  of  Kant,  Sir  William  Hamilton, 
and  Coleridge,  and  not  those  of  the  rationalistic  wing 
of  Transcendentalism,  are  favored  by  the  researches 
of  the  most  recent  German  philosophy. 

22.  As  materialism  and  sensationalism  assert,  there 
is  in  the  spiritual  part  of  man  nothing  which  was  not 
first  in  the  physical  sensations  of  the  man. 

23.  Leibnitz  long  ago  replied  to  this  pretence  by 
his  famous  and  yet  unanswered  remark:  There  is 
nothing  in  the  intellect  that  was  not  first  in  the  sen- 
sations, except  the  intellect  itself.  (Nihil  est  in  intel- 
lectu,  quod  non  fuerit  in  sensu,  nisi  ipse  intellectus. 
—  Leibnitz,  Nouveau  Ussais.^ 

24.  It  is  now  proved  that  the  soul  is  a  force  exter- 
nal to  the  nervous  mechanism,  and  that  the  molecular 
motions  of  the  particles  of  the  latter  are  a  closed 
circuit  not  transmutable  into  the  activities  of  the 
former. 


TESTS   OF   TRUTH.  21 

25.  We  know  now,  therefore,  that,  besides  what  furni- 
ture sensation  and  association  give  to  the  soul,  there  are 
in  us,  wholly  independent  of  experience,  the  soul  and 
the  plan  of  the  soul.     [Applause.] 

26.  Of  this  plan,  which  must  be  the  basis  of  all 
philosophy  relating  to  man,  the  self-evident,  necessary, 
and  universal  truths,  or  the  intuitions  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  organic  or  constitutional  instincts  on 
the  other,  are  a  revelation. 

27.  Every  organic  instinct  must  he  assumed  to  have 
its  correlate  to  match  it. 

28.  Every  really  intuitive  helicf  must  he  held  to  he 
correct.     [Applause.] 

Proof  that  there  is  a  soul  is  proof  that  there  is  a 
plan  of  the  soul. 

It  is  now  a  commonplace  of  science  that  the  uni- 
versality of  law  is  incontrovertible.  If  the  soul  has 
an  existence,  it  has  a  plan,  for  the  universality  of  law 
requires  that  every  thing  that  exists  should  have 
a  plan  ;  and,  if  the  soul  exists,  there  is  no  doubt  a 
plan  according  to  which  it  was  made,  and  according 
to  which  it  should  act. 

When,  therefore,  we  prove  that  the  soul  is  some- 
thing different  from  matter,  or  that  it  is  as  external 
to  the  nervous  system  as  light  to  the  eye,  and  the 
pulsations  of  the  air  to  the  ear ;  when  physiological 
science,  led  by  the  Lotzes  and  Ulricis  and  Beales, 
asserts  that  the  soul  is  possibly  the  occupant  of  a 
spiritual  body ;  or  when,  not  going  as  far  as  that,  we 
simply  say  there  is  a  soul,  —  we  affirm  by  implication 
that  it  is  made  upon  a  plan.     In  the  light  of  the  best 


22  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

biological  science  of  our  day,  it  is  incontrovertible 
that  we  have  in  man  two  things  at  least  that  did  not 
originate  in  his  senses  ;  namely,  the  soul  and  the  plan 
of  the  soul.  [Applause.]  That  is  not  a  proposition 
of  small  importance.  It  means  that  these  necessary 
beliefs,  these  self-evident  truths,  these  first  principles, 
inhere  in  the  very  plan  of  our  soul ;  and  that  they  are, 
therefore,  a  supreme  revelation  to  us  from  the  Author 
of  that  plan. 

Self-evident  truths  thus  take  hold  of  the  roots  of 
the  world.  If,  now,  I  raise  the  question  whether 
instinctive  beliefs,  whether  the  first  truths,  which 
Aristotle  said  no  man  could  desert  and  find  surer, 
whether  self-evi.dent  propositions,  are  not  made  self- 
evident  of  necessity  by  the  very  structure  of  our 
souls,  you  will  not  think  I  am  running  into  mysti- 
cism, will  you?  You  believe  there  is  a  soul,  and 
you  hold  that  every  thing  is  made  on  a  plan ;  or 
that  from  the  eyelash  that  looks  on  Orion,  up  to 
Orion  itself,  there  is  no  escape  from  the  universality 
of  law:  therefore,  you  must  hold,  that,  since  every 
thing  is  made  on  a  plan,  the  soul  itself  is.  Just  as 
you  know  that  your  hand  was  not  made  to  shut 
toAvard  the  back,  but  toward  the  front,  you  know 
that  the  soul  is  made  according  to  a  certain  plan. 
If  we  can  find  out  that  plan,  we  can  ascertain  what 
is  the  best  way  in  which  to  live.  It  is  said  we  can 
know  nothing ;  but  do  we  not  already  know  that  there 
is  a  best  way  to  live,  and  that  it  is  best  to  live  the 
best  way,  as  assuredly  as  we  know  that  our  hand 
was  not  made  to  shut  toward  the  back,  but  toward 


TESTS   OF   TRUTH.  23 

the  front  ?     I  think  I  know  that  [applause]  in  spite 
of  all  the  wooden  songs  of  materialism. 

German}'-  yet  listens  to  Immanuel  Kant,  and  to 
those  who,  succeeding  him  with  the  microscope  and 
scalpel,  have  carried  biological  knowledge  far  beyond 
its  state  in  his  time,  and  are  now  asserting  not  only 
the  existence  of  the  soul,  and  its  independence  of  the 
body,  but  that,  because  law  is  universal,  the  soul 
must  be  made  on  a  plan ;  and  that,  therefore,  the 
supreme  question  of  moral  science  and  intellectual 
philosophy,  and  of  all  research  that  founds  itself  on 
mere  organism,  must  be  to  ascertain  what  the  plan 
of  the  soul  is,  in  order  that,  through  a  knowledge  of 
the  plan,  we  may  learn  to  conform  to  it.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

What,  then,  must  philosophy  to-day  call  the  su- 
preme tests  of  truth  ? 

In  the  ceiling  of  this  temple  will  you  imagine  a 
great  circle  to  be  dra^vn,  and  will  you  call  one  quar- 
ter of  it  Intuition,  another  quarter  Instinct,  another 
Experiment,  another  Syllogism?  Let  our  attempts 
at  arriving  at  certitude  all  consist  of  endeavors  to 
rise  to  the  centre  from  which  all  these  arcs  are  drawn. 
If  you  will  show  me  what  the  intuitions  are,  and  do 
that  clearly,  I  can  almost  admit  that  you  may  strike 
the  whole  circle  from  simply  a  knowledge  of  that 
quadrant.  I  know,  that,  if  you  can  inductively  deter- 
mine any  curve  of  the  circle,  you  can  then  determine 
deductively  the  whole.  But,  my  friends,  we  have 
seen  too  many  failures  in  this  high  attempt  to  de- 
scribe the  circle  of  the  universe  by  determining  three 


24  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

points  only.  No  doubt  tkrough  any  three  points  a 
circle  may  be  drawn ;  but  so  vast  is  the  circle  of 
infmitie.5  and  eternities,  that  our  poor  human  com- 
passes cannot  be  trusted,  if  we  use  one  of  these 
quadrants  only.  Let  us  be  intuit ionalists,  hut  much 
else.  Let  us  test  quadrant  by  quadrant  around  the 
whole  circle  of  research.  Let  us  conjoin  the  testi- 
mony of  Intuition,  Instinct,  Experiment,  and  Syllo- 
gism. Show  me  accord  between  your  quadrant  of 
Intuition  and  your  quadrant  of  Instinct,  and  be- 
tween these  two  and  the  quadrant  of  Experiment,  — 
this  latter  is  the  English  quarter  of  the  heavens,  and 
that  of  Intuition  is  the  German,  —  and  between 
these  three  and  the  quadrant  of  Syllogism ;  and,  with 
these  four  supreme  tests  of  truth  agreeing,  I  know 
enough  for  the  cancelling  of  the  orphanage  of  Doubt. 
I  know  not  every  thing ;  but  I  assuredly  can  find  a 
way  through  all  multiplex  labyrinths  between  God 
and  man,  and  will  with  confidence  ascend  through  the 
focus  of  the  four  quadrants  into  God's  bosom.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Archbishop  Whately  said,  that,  the  wider  the  circle 
of  illumination,  the  greater  the  circle  of  surrounding 
darkness.  Acknowledging  that  this  is  true,  we  shall 
be  devoutly  humble  face  to  face  with  inexplicable 
portions  of  the  universe.  Nevertheless,  let  us,  witli 
the  faith  of  Emerson,' with  the  insight  of  Theodore 
Parker,  with  the  acuteness  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  ai 
well  as  with  the  deadly  precision  of  Kant,  and  of  all 
clear  and  devout  souls  since  the  world  began,  hold 
unalterably,  in   this   age  of  unrest   and  orphanage, 


TESTS   OF  TKUTH.  25 

that,  if  these  four  quadrants  agree,  we  may  implicitly 
trust  them  as  tests  of  truth.  [Applause.]  The  su- 
preme rules  of  certitude  were  never  more  visible 
than  in  our  distracted  day;  and  they  are  Intuition, 
Instinct,  Experiment,  Syllogism.  Each  is  a  subtle 
verification  of  every  other.  Let  us  image  these  vast 
quadrants  of  research  as  so  many  gigantic  reflectors 
of  a  light  not  their  own.  At  the  focal  point  of  the 
four.  Religious  Science,  strictly  so  called,  lights  its 
immortal  torch.     [Applause.] 


1 


n. 

TEANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

THE    SIXTIETH    LECTURE    IN    THE    BOSTON    MONDAY    LECTURE- 
SHIP,  DELIVERED   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE   JAN.    8. 


*' ^TJ/iT}  S'ovTTOTe  nafznav  am^vTat  fjv  nva  itoVmI 
Aaoi  (jnjfu^ovaf  Oeoc  vv  ng  earl  kuc  avTrj." 

Hesiod:  Works  and  Days. 

"Let  us  do  what  we  can  to  rekindle  the  smouldering,  nigh 
quenched  fire  on  the  altar.  The  remedy  is  first  soul,  and  second 
soul,  and  evermore  soul."  — Emebsok:  Address  at  Cambridge,  July 
15, 1838. 


i 
i 


n. 


TRANSCENDENTALISM    IN    NEW    ENG- 
LAND. 

PKELITDE   OIT  CUEEENT  .EVENTS. 

A  SEEious  man  must  rejoice  to  have  Christianity 
tested  philosophically,  historically,  and  in  every  great 
way,  but  not  in  a  certain  small,  light,  and  inwardly 
coarse  way,  of  which  the  world  has  had  enough,  and 
is  tired.  Yesterday  the  most  scholarly  representative 
of  what  calls  itself  Free  Religion  told  Boston  that 
the  Author  of  Christianity  is  historically  only  an 
idolized  memor}'-  inwreathed  with  mythical  fictions. 
Will  you  allow  me  to  say  that  the  leading  universi- 
ties of  Germany,  through  their  greatest  specialists  in 
exegetical  and  historical  research,  have  decisively 
given  up  that  opinion  ?  Thirty  or  forty  years  ago  it 
was  proclaimed  there  in  rationalistic  lecture-rooms 
very  emphatically :  to-day  such  lecture-rooms  are 
empty,  and  those  of  the  opposing  schools  are 
crowded.  On  the  stately  grounds  of  Sans  Souci, 
where  Frederick  the  Great  and  Voltaire  had  called 
out  to  the  culture  of  Europe,  "  Ecrasez  Vinfame  I " 
King  William  and  his   queen  lately  entertained  an 

29 


30  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

Evangelical  Alliance  gathered  from  the  Indus,  the 
Nile,  the  Danube,  the  Rhine,  the  Thames,  and  the 
Mississippi.  Histories  of  the  rise  and  progress  and 
decline  of  German  Rationalism,  and  especially  of 
the  power  of  the  Mythical  Theory,  have  been  appear- 
ing abundantly  for  the  last  jfifteen  years  in  the  most 
learned  portions  of  the  literature  of  Germany.  The 
incontrovertible  fact  is,  that  every  prominent  German 
university,  except  Heidelberg,  is  now  under  predomi- 
nant evangelical  influences.  Heidelberg  is  nearly 
empty  of  theological  students.  Lord  Bacon  said 
that  the  best  materials  for  prophecy  are  the  unforced 
opinions  of  young  men.  Against  twenty-four  theo- 
logical students  at  rationalistic  Heidelberg  there 
were  lately  at  evangelical  Halle  two  hundred  and 
eightj^-two  ;  at  evangelical  Berlin  two  hundred  and 
eighty  ;  and  at  hyper-evangelical  Leipzig  four  hun- 
dred and  twelve. 

Before  certain  recent  discussions  and  discoveries 
on  the  field  of  research  into  the  history  of  the  origin 
of  Christianity,  the  rationalistic  lecture-rooms  were 
crowded,  and  the  evangelical  empty.  It  is  notorious 
that  such  teachers  as  Tholuck,  Julius  Miiller,  Dorner, 
Twesten^  Ullmann,  Lange,  Rothe,  and  Tischendorf, 
most  of  whom  began  their  professorships  at  their 
universities  with  great  unpopularity,  on  account  of 
their  opposition  to  rationalistic  views,  are  now  par- 
ticularly honored  on  that  very  account.  (See  ar- 
ticle on  the  "  Decline  of  Rationalism  in  the  German 
Universities,"  Bihliotheca  Sacra^  October,  1875.) 

We  often  have  offered  to  us  in  Boston  the  crumbs 


TRANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW   ENGLAND.        31 

from  German  pliilosopliical  tables;   and,  although  I 
must  not   speak  harshly,  the    truth  must  be   told, 
namely,  that  the  faithful  in  the  uneducated  ranks  of 
scepticism  —  I   do    not  deny    that    there    are   vast 
masses    of    Orthodoxy   uneducated    also  —  are   not 
infrequently  fed  on  cold  remnants  swept  away  with 
derision  from  the  scholarly  repasts  of  the  world.     If 
you  will   open   the   biography  of    David   Friedrich 
Strauss,  by  Zeller,  his  admiring  friend,  and  a  profess- 
or at  Heidelberg,    you  will    read  these  unqualified 
words :     "  Average    theological    liberalism    pressed 
forward  eagerly  to  renounce  all  compromising  asso- 
ciation with  Strauss  after  he  published  the  last  state- 
ment of  his  mythical  theory."     (See  Zeller,  Pro- 
EESSOR  Eduard,  "  Strauss  in  his  Life  and  Writings,'' 
English  translation,    London,    1874,    pp.    135,  141, 
143.)     It   did  so  under  irresistible  logical  pressure, 
and  especially  because  recent  discoveries   have  car- 
ried back  the  dates  of  the  New-Testament  literature 
fifty  years. 

Thirty  years  ago  it  used  to  be  thought  that  the 
earliest  date  at  which  the  New-Testament  literature 
can  be  shown  to  have  been  received  as  of  equal 
authority  with  the  Old  was  about  A.D.  130  ;  but,  as 
all  scholars  will  tell  you,  even  Baur  admitted  that 
Paul's  chief  Epistles  were  genuine,  and  were  written 
before  the  year  60.  This  admission  is  fatal  to  the 
mythical  theory  put  forth  by  Strauss  when  he  was  a 
young  man,  and  now  for  twenty  years  marked  as 
juvenile  by  the  best  scholarship  of  Germany.  These 
letters  of  Paul,  written  at  that  date,  are  incontro- 


32  TRANSCEjSTDElSrTALISM. 

vertible  proof  that  the  leading  traits  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Author  of  Christianity,  as  given  in   the 
so-called  mythical  Gospels,  were  familiar  to  the  Chris- 
tian world  within  twenty-five  years  after  his  death 
(Thayer,  Professor  J.  Henry,  of  Andover,  Boston 
Lectures,  1871,  p.  372).     There  is  now  in  the  hands 
of  scholars  incontrovertible  evidence  that  even  the 
Gospels  had   acquired    authority  with    the   earliest 
churches  as  early  as    A.D.  125.      Schenkel,  Kenan, 
Keim,  Weizsacker,  and  others  widely  removed  from 
the  traditional  views,  teach  that  the  Fourth  Gospel 
itself  could  not  have  appeared  later  than  a  few  years 
after   the   beginning   of  the   second  century.     (See 
Fisher,  Professor  George  P.,  Essays  on  the  Svr 
pernatural   Origin  of   Christianity,  1870,  Preface,  p. 
xxxviii.)     These  discoveries  explain   the   new  atti- 
tude of  German  scholarship.     They  carry  back  the 
indubitable  traces   of  the  New-Testament  literature 
more  than  fifty  years.     They  shut  the  colossal  shears 
of  chronology  upon  the  theories  of  Baur,   Strauss, 
and  Renan.     They  narrow  by  so  much  the  previously 
too  narrow  room  used  by  these  theories  to  explain 
the  growth  of  myths  and  legends.     Strauss  demands 
a  century  after  the  death  of  Paul  for  his  imaginative 
additions  to  Christianity  to  grow  up  in.     It  is  now 
established  that  not  only  not  a  century,  but  not  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  can  be  had  for  this  purpose. 
The  upper  date  of  A.D.  34,  and  the  lower  date  of 
A.D.  60,  as  established  by  exact  research,  are  the  two 
merciless   blades   of  the   shears  between  which  the 
latest  and  most  deftly-woven  web  of  doubt  is  cut 


TRANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.        33 

in  two.  [Applause.]  There  is  no  room  for  that 
course  of  mythical  development  which  the  Tubingen 
school  describes.  As  a  sect  in  biblical  criticism,  this 
school  has  perished.  Its  history  has  been  written  in 
more  than  one  tongue  (Thayer,  Professor  J. 
Henry,  Criticism  Confirmatory  of  the  Crospels,  Boston 
Lectures,  1871,  pp.  863,  364,  371). 

Chevalier  Bunsen  once  wrote  to  Thomas  Arnold 
this  incisive  exclamation  :  "  The  idea  of  men  writing 
mytliic  histories  between  the  time  of  Livy  and  Taci- 
tus, and  Saint  Paul  mistaking  such  for  realities  !  " 
Arnold's  Life,  Letter  cxliv.)  Paul  had  opportunity 
to  know  the  truth,  and  was,  besides,  one  of  the  bold- 
est and  acutest  spirits  of  his  own  or  of  any  age. 
Was  Paul  a  dupe  ?     [Applause.] 

But  who  does  not  know  the  history  of  the  defeat 
of  sceptical  school  after  sceptical  school  on  the 
rationalistic  side  of  the  field  of  exegetical  research  ? 
The  naturalistic  theory  was  swallowed  by  the  mythi- 
cal theory,  and  the  mythical  by  the  tendency  theory, 
and  the  tendency  by  the  legendary  theory,  and  each 
of  the  four  by  time.  [Applause.]  Strauss  laughs 
at  Paulus,  Baur  at  Strauss,  Ilenan  at  Baur,  the  hour- 
glass at  all.  [Applause.]  "  Under  his  guidance," 
says  Strauss  of  Paulus  (New  Life  of  Jesus,  English 
translation,  p.  18),  "we  tumble  into  the  mire;  and 
assuredly  dross,  not  gold,  is  the  issue  to  which  his 
method  of  interpretation  generally  leads."  "  Up  to 
the  present  day,"  says  Baur  of  Strauss  (^Krit.  Untcrs. 
iiher  die  canonische  Evangel.,  121,  40-71),  "the  mythi- 
cal theory  has  been  rejected  by  every  man  of  educa- 


34  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tion."  And  yet  New- York  lips  teach  it  here  in 
modern  Athens  !  [Applause.]  "  Insufficient,"  says 
Renan  of  Baur  {Etude  cTHlst.  Rel.,  163),  "  is  what  he 
leaves  existing  of  the  Gospels  to  account  for  the  faith 
of  the  apostles."  He  makes  the  Pauline  and  Petrine 
factions  account  for  the  religion,  and  the  religion 
account  for  the  Pauline  and  Petrine  factions.  "  Criti- 
cism has  run  all  to  leaves,"  said  Strauss  (see  Zeller, 
Life  of  Strauss,  p.  143)  in  his  bitter  disappointment 
at  the  failure  of  his  final  volume. 

Appropriately  was  there  carried  on  Richter's  cof- 
fin to  his  grave  a  manuscript  of  his  last  work,  —  a 
discussion  in  proof  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul : 
appropriately  might  there  have  been  carried  on 
Strauss's  coffin  to  his  grave  his  last  work,  restating 
his  mythical  theory,  if  only  that  theory  had  not,  as 
every  scholar  knows,  died  and  been  buried  before  its 
author.     [Applause.] 

The  supreme  question  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
New-Testament  literature  is  now,  whether,  in  less 
than  thirty  years  intervening  between  the  death  of 
the  Author  of  Christianity  and  A.D.  60,  in  which 
Paul's  Epistles  are  known  to  have  become  authori- 
ties, there  is  room  enough  in  the  age  of  Livy  and 
Tacitus  for  the  growth  and  inwreathing  of  mythical 
fictions  around  an  idolized  memory  lying  in  the  dim 
haze  of  the  past.  An  unscholarly  and  discredited 
theory  was  presented  to  you  yesterday  gracefully, 
bat  not  forcefully. 

Let  us  see  what  a  vigorous  and  unpartisan  mind 
says  on  the  same  topic.     "  I  know  men,"  said  Napo- 


TRANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.   35 

leon  at  St.  Helena  —  the  record  is  authentic ;  read  it 
in  Liddons'  Bampton  Lectures  on  the  Divinity  of  Our 
Lord,  the  best  recent  book  on  that  theme,  —  "I 
know  men,  and  I  tell  you  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
not  a  man."  Daniel  Webster,  on  his  dying-bed, 
wrote  on  the  marble  of  his  tombstone  "  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  cannot  be  a  merely  human  production." 
Kenan  was  particularly  cited  to  you  yesterday ;  but 
when  I  went  into  the  study  of  Professor  Dorner, 
Schleiermacher's  successor,  at  Berlin,  and  conversed 
with  him  about  the  greatest  sceptics  of  Europe,  I 
came  to  the  name  of  Kenan,  and  said,  "  What  are  we 
to  think  of  his  '  Life  of  Jesus  '  ?  " 

"  Das  ist  Nichts,"  he  answered,  and  added  no  more. 
"  That  is  nothing."     [Applause.] 

Ko  doubt,  in  the  fume  and  foam  and  froth  of  liter- 
ary brilliancy  serving  a  lost,  bad  cause,  there  may  be 
iridescence,  as  well  as  in  the  enduring  opal  and  pearl ; 
but,  wliile  the  colors  seven  flashed  from  the  fragile 
spray  are  as  beautiful  as  foam  and  froth,  they  are 
also  just  as  substantial.     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTUKE. 

Side  by  side  under  the  lindens  in  the  great  ceme- 
tery of  Berlin  lie  Fitche  and  Hegel ;  and  I  am  tran- 
scendentalist  enough  myself  to  liaTe  walked  one 
lonely  day,  four  miles,  from  tlie  tombs  of  Neander 
and  Schleiermacher,  on  the  hill  south  of  the  city,  to 
the  quiet  spot  where  the  great  philosophers  of  tran- 
scendentalism lie  at  rest  till  the  heavens  be  no  more. 
I   treasure   among   the    mementos    of    travel    some 


36  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

broad  myrtle-leaves  which  I  plucked  from  the  sods 
that  lie  above  these  giants  in  philosophy ;  and,  if  I 
to-day  cast  a  little  ridicule  upon  the  use  some  of 
their  disciples  have  made  of  the  great  tenets  of  the 
masters,  you  will  not  suppose  me  to  be  irreverent 
towards  any  fountain-head  of  intuitive,  axiomatic, 
self-evident  truth.  You  wish,  and  I,  too,  wish,  cool 
draughts  out  of  the  Castalian  spring  of  axioms. 
You  are,  and  I,  too,  am,  thirsty  for  certainty ;  and  I 
find  it  only  in  the  sure  four  tests  of  truth,  —  intuition, 
instinct,  experiment,  syllogism,  —  all  agreeing.  [Ap- 
plause.] But  of  the  four  tests,  of  course  the  first  is 
chief,  head  and  shoulders  above  all  the  rest. 

Even  in  Germany  the  successors  of  the  great  tran- 
scendentalists  have  made  sport  for  the  ages;  and 
no  doubt  here  in  New  England  it  was  to  have  been 
expected  that  there  should  be  some  sowing  of  "  tran- 
scendental wild-oats."  [Applause.]  That  plirase  is 
the  incisive  language  of  a  daughter  of  transcen- 
dentalism honored  by  this  generation,  and  likely  to 
be  honored  by  many  more.  I  am  asking  you  to  look 
to-day  at  the  erratic  side  of  a  great  movement,  the 
right  wing  and  centre  of  which  I  respect,  but  the 
left  wing  of  which,  or  that  which  broke  with  Chris- 
tianity, has  brought  upon  itself  self-confessed  defeat. 

What  has  been  the  outcome  of  breaking  with 
Christianity  in  the  name  of  intuitive  truth  in  Ger- 
many? Take  up  the  latest  advices,  which  it  is  my 
duty,  as  an  outlook  committee  for  this  audience,  to 
keep  before  you,  and  you  will  find  that  Immanuel 
Hermann  Fichte,  the  son  of  this  man  at  whose  grave 


TEAXSCENDEXTALISM   IN   NEW    ENGLAND.        3T 

I  stood  in  Berlin,  has  just  passed  into  the  Unseen 
Holy ;  and  that,  as  his  last  legacy,  he  left  to  the  ages 
a  work  entitled  "  Questions  and  Considerations  con- 
cerning the  Ne^yest  Form  of  German  Speculation." 
When,  one  day,  the  great  Fichte  heard  the  drums  of 
Napoleon  beat  in  the  streets  of  Berlin,  he  closed  a 
lecture  by  announcing  that  the  next  would  be  given 
when  Prussia  had  become  free ;  and  then  enlisted 
against  the  conqueror,  and  kept  liis  word.  The  son 
has  had  a  more  quiet  life  than  the  father ;  but  he  has 
given  himself  exclusively  to  philosophy.  The  second 
Fichte  was  the  founder  of  the  "  Journal  of  Specula- 
tive Philosophy,"  now  conducted  by  Ulrici  and 
Wirth ;  and  he  has  lived  through  much.  He  knew 
his  father's  system  presumably  well.  Has  it  led  to 
pantheism  or  materialism  with  him,  as  it  has  with 
some  others?  If  Emerson  has  made  pantheism  a 
logical  outcome  of  Fichte' s  teachings,  ivhat  has  Fichte' s 
son  made  of  them?  The  son  of  the  great  Fichte 
has  been  a  professor  at  Dusseldorf  and  Bonn,  and, 
since  1842,  at  Tiibingen.  He  is  a  specialist  in 
German  philosophy  if  ever  there  was  one  ;  and  his 
latest  production  was  a  history  of  his  own  philosophi- 
cal school.  He  attempted  to  show  that  the  line  of 
sound  philosophy  in  Germany  is  represented  by  three 
great  names,  —  Leibnitz  and  Kant  and  Lotze.  You 
do  not  care  to  have  from  me  an  outline  of  his  work ; 
and  perhaps,  therefore,  you  will  allow  me  to  read 
the  summary  of  it  given  by  your  North-American 
Review,  for  that  certainly  ought  to  be  free  from 
partisanship.     Thus  Fichte  loftily  writes  to  Zeller, 


38  THANSCEXDENTALISM. 

the  biographer  of  Strauss,  and  his  positions  are  a 
sign  of  the  times :  — 

"  Ethical  theism  is  now  master  of  the  situation. 
The  attempt  to  lose  sight  of  the  personal  God  in 
nature,  or  to  subordinate  his  transcendence  over  the 
universe  to  any  power  immanent  in  the  universe,  and 
especiall}^  the  tendency  to  deny  the  theology  of  ethics, 
and  to  insist  only  upon  the  reign  of  force,  are  utterly 
absurd,  and  are  meeting  their  just  condemnation." 
[Applause.]  (^North-American  Review^  January,  1877, 
p.  147.) 

Concord  once  listened  to  Germany.  Will  it  con- 
tinue to  listen  ?  Cambridge  cannot  show  at  the  foot 
of  her  text-book  pages  five  English  names  where  she 
can  show  ten  German.  In  the  footnotes  of  learned 
works  you  will  find  German  authorities  a  dozen 
times  where  you  can  find  English  six,  or  American 
three.  Let  us  appeal  to  no  temporary  swirl  of  cur- 
rents, but  to  a  Gulf  Stream.  Of  course,  history  is 
apt  to  be  misleading,  unless  we  take  it  in  long 
ranges.  Read  Sir  William  Hamilton's  celebrated 
summary  (Note  A,  Ajjpendix  to  Reid's  works),  if 
you  wish  to  see  the  whole  gulf  current  of  belief  in 
self-evident  truth  since  Aristotle.  But  here  in  Ger- 
many is  a  vast  stretch  of  modern  philosophical  dis- 
cussion, beginning  with  Leibnitz,  running  on  through 
Kant,  and  so  coming  down  to  Lotze ;  and  it  is  all  on 
the  line  of  intuitive  truth,  and  it  never  has  broken 
with  Christianity,  nor  been  drawn  into  either  the 
Charybdis  of  materialism  or  the  Scylla  of  pantheism. 
[Applause.] 


TRANSCENDENTALISM   IN  NEW   ENGLAND.        39 

The  latest  and  acutest  historian  of  German  the- 
ology, Schwartz  of  Gotha,  saj-s  that  Strauss  desig- 
nates not  so  much  a  beginning  as  an  end,  and  that 
the  supreme  lack  in  his  system  is  twofold,  —  the 
absence  of  historical  insight  and  of  religious  sensi- 
bility. Now,  I  will  not  deny  that  rationalism  in  New 
England,  with  eight  generations  of  Puritan  culture 
behind  it,  has  often  shown  religious  sensitiveness. 
Some  transcendentalists  who  have  broken  with 
Christianity  I  reverence  so  far  forth  as  they  retain 
here  in  New  England  a  degree  of  religious  sensibility 
which  is  often  utterly  unknown  among  rationalists 
abroad.  Heaven  cause  my  tongue  to  cleave  to  the 
roof  of  my  mouth  if  ever  I  say  aught  ironical,  or  in 
any  way  derogatory,  of  that  consciousness  of  God 
which  underlay  the  vigor  of  Theodore  Parker,  which 
is  the  transfiguring  thing  in  Emerson,  and  which, 
very  much  further  down  in  the  list  of  those  who  are 
shy  of  Christianity,  is  yet  the  glory  of  their  thinking, 
and  of  their  reverence  for  art,  and  is  especially  the 
strength  of  their  philanthropic  endeavors !  [Ap- 
plause.] We  have  no  France  for  a  neighbor ;  wars 
have  not  stormed  over  America  as  they  have  over 
Europe ;  and  it  cannot  yet  be  said,  even  of  our 
erratics,  as  undoubtedly  it  can  be  of  many  French 
and  German  ones,  that  they  have  lost  the  conscious- 
ness of  God. 

What  is  Transcendentalism  ? 

You  will  not  suspect  me  of  possessing  the  mood 
of  that  acute  teacher,  who,  on  the  deck  of  a  Missis- 
sippi steamer,  was  asked  this  question,  and  replied, 


40  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

"  See  the  holes  made  in  the  bank  j^onder  by  the 
swallows.  Take  away  the  bank,  and  leave  the  aper- 
tures, and  this  is  Transcendentalism."  The  answer 
to  this  is  the  certainty  that  we  are  all  bank-swallows. 
The  right  wing  and  the  centre  of  this  social,  twitter- 
ing human  race  live  in  these  apertures,  as  well  as  the 
left  wing ;  and  it  would  be  of  little  avail  to  ridicule 
the  self-evident  truths  on  which  our  own  peace  de- 
pends. I  affirm  simply  that  Transcendentalism  of 
the  left  wing  has  not  been  consistent  with  Transcen- 
dentalism itself. 

My  general  proposition  is,  that  rationalistic  Tran- 
scendentalism in  New  England  is  not  Transcendental- 
ism, but,  at  the  last  analysis,  Individualism. 

Scholars  will  find  that  on  this  occasion,  as  on 
many  others,  discussion  here  is  purposely  very  ele- 
mentary. 

1.  The  plan  of  the  physical  organism  is  not  in  the 
food  by  which  the  organism  is  sustained. 

2.  The  mechanism  by  which  the  assimilation  of 
food  is  effected  exists  before  the  food  is  received. 

3.  But,  until  the  food  is  received,  that  mechanism 
does  not  come  into  operation. 

4.  The  plan  of  the  spiritual  organism  is  not  in  the 
impressions  received  through  sensation  and  associa- 
tion. 

5.  The  fundamental  laws  of  thought  exist  in  the 
plan  of  the  soul  anterior  to  all  sensation  or  associa- 
tion. 

6.  But  they  are  brought  into  operation  only  by 
experience  through  sensation  and  association. 


TRANSCENDENTALISM   IN   NEW   ENGLAND,        41 

7.  It  is  absurd  to  say  that  the  plan  of  the  body  is 
produced  by  its  food. 

8.  It  is  equally  absurd  to  say  that  the  plan,  or 
fundamental  intuitive  beliefs  of  the  soul,  are  pro- 
duced by  sensation  and  association. 

9.  Therefore,  as  the  plan  of  the  body  does  not 
have  its  origin  in  the  food  of.  the  body,  so  the  plan 
of  the  mind  does  not  have  its  origin  in  the  food  of 
the  mind. 

You  receive  food,  and  a  certain  plan  in  your  physi- 
cal organism  distributes  it  after  it  is  received,  assim- 
ilates it,  and  you  are  entirely  sure  that  the  mechan- 
ism involved  in  this  process  exists  before  the  food. 
It  may  be  that  every  part  of  my  physical  system  is 
made  up  of  food  and  drink  which  I  have  taken,  or 
of  air  which  I  have  breathed ;  and  yet  there  is  one 
thing  in  me  that  the  food  did  not  give  me,  or  the  air ; 
and  that  is  the  plan  of  my  physical  organism.  [Ap- 
plause.] Not  in  the  gases,  not  in  the  fluids,  not  in 
the  solids,  was  there  the  plan  of  these  lenses  in  the 
eye,  or  of  this  harp  of  three  thousand  strings  in 
the  year. 

Besides  all  the  materials  which  go  to  make  up  a 
watch,  you  must  have  the  plan  of  the  watch.  If  I 
were  to  place  a  book  on  my  right  here,  and  then 
take  another  copy  of  the  book  and  tear  it  into  shreds, 
and  cast  these  down  on  the  left,  it  would  not  be  law- 
ful to  say  that  I  have  on  one  side  the  same  that  I 
have  on  the  other.  In  one  case  the  volume  is 
arranged  in  an  intelligible  order :  in  the  other  it  is 
chaotic.     Besides  the  letters,  we  must  have  the  co- 


42        •  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

ordination  of  the  letters  in  the  finished  volume.  So 
in  man's  organism  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  the 
food  which  we  eat,  and  which  does,  indeed,  build 
every  thing  in  us,  is  not  us ;  for  the  plan  of  us  is 
something  existing  before  that  food  enters  the  sys- 
tem, and  that  plan  separates  the  different  elements, 
and  distributes  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  out 
the  peculiarities  of  each  individual  organism. 

Now,  whether  or  not  you  admit  that  there  is  a 
spiritual  organism  behind  the  physical,  whether  or 
not  you  agree  with  your  Beales  and  Lotzes  and 
Ulricis  in  asserting  that  the  scientific  method  re- 
quires that  we  should  suppose  that  there  is  in  us  a 
spiritual  organism  which  weaves  the  physical,  you 
will  at  least  admit,  that,  so  far  as  the  individual  ex- 
perience is  concerned,  we  have  within  us  laws,  funda- 
mental, organic,  and,  if  not  innate,  at  least  connate. 
They  came  into  the  world  with  us ;  they  are  a  part 
of  the  plan  on  which  we  are  made.  When  we  touch 
the  external  world  with  the  outer  senses,  and  the 
inner  world  with  the  inner  senses,  no  doubt  food  is 
coming  to  our  souls  ;  but  that  plan  is  the  law  accord- 
ing to  which  all  our  experiences  through  sensation 
and  association  are  distributed. 

10.  The  school  of  sensationalism  in  philosophy 
maintains  that  the  soul's  laws  are  only  an  accumula- 
tion of  inheritances. 

11.  To  that  school,  self-evident  truths  themselves 
are  simply  those  which  result  from  an  unvarying  and 
the  largest  experience ;  or  those  which  have  been 
deeply  engraved  on  our  physical  organisms  by  the 


TRANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.        43 

uniform  sensations  of  our  whole  line    of   ancestors 
back  to  the  earliest  and  simplest  form  of  life. 

12.  Human  experience  cannot  embrace  all  space 
and  time. 

13.  Sensationalism  in  philosophy,  therefore,  which 
holds  that  all  the  intuitive  or  axiomatic  truths  arise 
from  experience,  must  deny  that  we  can  be  sure  that 
theee  truths  are  true  in  all  space  and  time. 

14.  But  we  are  thus  sure  ;  and  sensationalism  is 
wrecked  on  its  palpable  inability  to  explain  by 
experience  this  confessed  certainty. 

Face  to  face  with  this  inadequate  explanation 
which  evolution  offers  for  the  self-evident,  necessary, 
and  universal  truths  of  the  soul,  let  us  look  at  the 
worst. 

It  matters  to  me  very  little  how  my  eyes  came  into 
existence,  if  only  they  see  accurately.  You  say  con- 
science was  once  only  a  bit  of  sensitive  matter  in  a 
speck  of  jelly.  You  affirm,  that,  by  the  law  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  in  the  struggle  of  many  jelly- 
specks  with  each  other  for  existence,  one  peculiarly- 
vigorous  jelly-speck  obtained  the  advantage  of  its 
brethren,  and  so  became  the  progenitor  of  many  vig- 
orous jelly-specks.  Then  these  vigorous  jelly-specks 
made  new  war  on  each  other ;  and  individuals,  ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  heredity  with  variation,  having 
now  and  then  fortunate  endowments,  survived,  and 
transmitted  these,  to  become  better  and  better,  until 
the  jelly-specks  produce  the  earliest  seaweed.  By 
and  by  a  mollusk  appears  under  the  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of   the   fittest,  and    then    higher  and    higher 


44  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

forms,  till  at  last,  tkrougli  infinite  chance  and  mis- 
chance, man  is  produced.  Somewhere  and  somehow 
the  jelly-specks  get  not  only  an  intellect,  not  only 
artistic  perception,  but  conscience  and  will,  and  this 
far-reaching  longing  for  immortality,  this  sense  that 
there  is  a  Mind  superior  to  ours  on  which  we  are 
dependent.  Now,  for  a  moment,  admit  that  this  the- 
ory of  evolution,  which  Professor  Dawson,  in  an  arti- 
cle in  the  last  number  of  the  "  International  Review," 
on  Huxley  in  New  York,  says  will  be  regarded  by 
the  next  age  as  one  of  the  most  mysterious  of  illu- 
sions, is  true,  the  supreme  question  yet  remains,  — 
whether  my  conscience  is  authority. 

Take  something  merely  physical,  like  the  eyes. 
When  I  was  a  jelly-speck  of  the  more  infirm  sort, 
or  at  least  when  I  was  a  fish,  I  saw  something,  and 
what  I  saw  I  saw.  When  I  was  a  lichen,  although 
I  was  not  a  sensitive-plant,  I  felt  something,  and 
what  I  felt  I  felt.  So  when,  at  last,  these  miracu- 
lous lenses  began  to  appear,  as  the  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  rough-hewed  them  age  after  age, 
I  saw  better  and  better  ;  but  what  I  saw  I  saw  :  and 
to-day  I  feel  very  sure  that  the  deliverance  gf  the 
eyes  is  accurate.  I  am  not  denying  here  any  of 
the  facts  as  to  our  gradual  acquisition  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  distance  and  of  dimension  ;  that  comes  from 
the  operation  of  all  the  senses ;  but  we  feel  certain 
that  what  we  see  we  see. 

Suppose,  then,  that,  in  this  grand  ascent  from  the 
jelly-speck  to  the  archangel,  the  process  of  evolution 
shall  at  last  make  our  eyes  as  powerful  as  the  best 


TRANSCENDENTALISM   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.        45 

telescopes  of  the  present  day.  It  will  yet  plainly 
be  true,  will  it  not,  that  what  we  see  we  see  ?  and  as 
the  eyes  are  now  good  within  their  range,  so,  when 
they  become  telescopic,  they  will  be  good  within 
their  range.  Just  so,  even  if  we  hold  to  the  evolu- 
tionary hypothesis  in  its  extremest  claims,  we  must 
hold,  that,  if  conscience  was  good  for  any  thing  when 
it  was  rudimentary,  it  is  good  now  in  its  liigher  stage 
of  development.  If  by  and  by  it  shall  become  tele- 
scopic, what  it  sees  it  will  see.  [Applause.]  I  will 
not  give  up  for  an  instant  the  authorit}^  of  connate^ 
although  you  deny  all  innate  truth.  You  may  show 
me  that  fatalism  is  the  result  of  your  evolutionary 
hypothesis ;  you  may  prove  to  me  that  immortality 
cannot  be  maintained  if  your  philosophy  is  true ; 
you  may,  indeed,  assert,  as  Hackel  does,  "  that  there 
is  no  God  but  necessity,"  if  you  are  an  evolutionist 
of  the  thorough-going  type,  that  is,  not  only  a 
Darwinian,  but  an  Hiickelian.  But  let  Hackel's 
consistent  atheistic  'evolutionism,  which  Germany 
rejects  with  scorn,  be  adopted,  and  it  will  yet  remain 
true  that  there  is  a  plan  in  man ;  and  that,  while 
there  is  a  plan  in  man,  there  will  be  a  best  way  to 
live  ;  and  that,  while  there  is  a  best  way  to  live,  it 
will  be  best  to  live  the  best  way.     [Applause.] 

There  is,  however,  no  sign  of  the  progress  of  the 
Hiickelian  theory  of  evolution  toward  general  accept- 
ance. On  every  side  you  are  told  that  evolution  is 
more  and  more  the  philosophy  of  science.  But 
which  form  of  the  theory  of  evolution  is  meant? 
The  Darwinian  is  a  theory,  the  Hackelian  is  the 
theory,  of  evolution. 


46  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

15.  Observing  our  mental  operations,  we  very 
easily  convince  ourselves  that  we  are  sure  of  the 
truth  of  some  propositions,  concerning  which  neither 
we  nor  the  race  have  had  experience. 

16.  If  it  be  true  that  all  these  certainties  that  we 
call  self-e^ident  arise  simply  from  experience,  it 
must  be  shown  that  our  certainties  do  not  reach 
beyond  our  experience. 

It  is  very  sure,  is  it  not,  that  the  sun  might  rise 
to-morrow  morning  in  the  west?  Neither  we  nor 
our  ancestors  have  had  any  experience  of  its  rising 
there.  Space  is  a  necessary  idea,  but  the  rising  of 
the  sun  in  the  east  is  not ;  and  yet  our  experience 
of  the  one  is  as  invariable  as  that  of  the  other. 
That  blazing  mass  of  suns  we  call  Orion  might  have 
its  stellar  points  differently  arranged;  and  yet  I 
never  saw  Orion  in  any  shape  other  than  that  which 
it  now  possesses.  I  am  perfectly  confident  that  the 
gems  on  the  sword-hilt  of  Orion  might  be  taken 
away,  or  never  have  been  in  existence  ;  but  I  never 
yet  saw  Orion  without  seeing  there  the  flashing  of 
the  jewels  on  the  hilt  of  his  sword. 

John  Stuart  Mill  would  say,  and  so  would  George 
Henry  Lewes,  —  whose  greatest  distinction,  by  the 
way,  is,  that  he  is  the  husband  of  Marian  Evans,  the 
authoress  of  "  Daniel  Deronda,"  —  that,  although  my 
own  experience  never  has  shown  to  me  Orion  in  any 
other  shape  than  that  which  it  now  possesses,  per- 
haps my  ability  to  give  it  another  shape  in  thought 
may  arise  from  some  experience  in  the  race  behind 
me.     We  are  told  by  the  school  of  evolution,  that  it 


TRANSCENDENTALISM   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.        47 

is  not  our  indi\'idual  experience  that  explains  our 
necessary  ideas,  but  the  transmitted  experience  of 
the  race  behind  us.  We  have  inherited  nervous 
changes,  from  the  whole  range  of  the  development 
of  the  species ;  and  so,  somewhere  and  somehow  in 
the  past,  there  must  have  been  an  experience  which 
gives  you  the  capacity  to  say  that  the  sun  may  rise  in 
the  west,  and  that  Orion  might  have  another  shape. 
But  is  it  not  tolerably  sure  that  none  of  my  grand- 
fathers or  great-grandfathers,  back  to  the  jelly-speck, 
ever  saw  the  sun  rise  in  the  west  ?  The  human  race 
never  saw  Orion  in  any  other  shape.  The  truth  is, 
that  experience  goes  altogether  too  short  a  distance 
to  account  for  the  wide  range  of  such  a  certainty,  as 
that  every  effect,  not  only  here,  but  everywhere, 
must  have  a  cause. 

17.  Experience  does  not  teach  what  must  be,  but 
only  what  is ;  but  we  know  that  every  change  not 
only  has,  but  must  have,  a  cause. 

I  never  had  any  experience  in  the  Sun,  or  in  the 
Seven  Stars.  I  never  paced  about  the  Pole  with 
Ursa  Major,  across  the  breadth  of  one  of  whose  eye- 
lashes my  imagination  cannot  pass  without  fainting ; 
I  know  nothing  of  the  thoughts  of  Saggitarius,  as  he 
bends  his  bow  of  fire  yonder  in  the  southern  heavens: 
but  this  I  do  know,  that  everywhere  and  in  all  time 
every  change  must  have  a  cause.  You  are  certain  of 
the  universality  of  every  necessary  truth.  Plow  are 
you  to  account  for  that  certainty  by  any  known 
experience  ? 

18.  We  cannot  explain  by  experience  a  certainty 
that  goes  beyond  experience. 


48  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

Jolm  Stuart  Mill,  perfectly  honest  and  perfectly 
luminous,  comes  squarely  up  to  this  difficulty,  and 
says  in  so  many  words,  "  There  may  be  worlds  in 
which  two  and  two  do  not  make  four,  and  where  a 
change  need  not  have  a  cause."  (Examination  of 
Hamilton's  Philosophy;  see,  also.  Mill's  Logic^ 
book  iii.  chap,  xxi.)  So  clearly  does  he  see  this  ob- 
jection, that,  astounding  some  of  his  adherents,  he 
made  this  ver}^  celebrated  admission,  wliich  has  done 
more  to  cripple  the  pliilosophy  of  sensationalism, 
probably,  than  any  other  event  in  its  history  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years.  Even  mathematical  axioms 
may  be  false.  You  and  I,  gentlemen,  feel,  and  must 
feel,  that  this  conclusion  is  arbitrary ;  that  it  is  not 
true  to  the  constitution  of  man ;  that  we  have  within 
us  something  which  asserts  not  only  the  present 
earthly  certainty,  that  every  change  must  have  a 
cause,  but  that  forever  and  forever,  in  all  time  to 
come,  and  backward  through  all  time  past,  this  law 
holds. 

19.  Everywhere,  all  exact  science  assumes  the 
universal  applicability  of  all  true  axioms  in  all  time 
and  in  all  places. 

Rejecting  in  the  name  of  exact  science,  therefore, 
Mill's  startling  paradox,  we  must  conclude  that  we 
are  not  loyal  to  the  indications  of  our  own  constitu- 
tion, unless  we  say  that  there  is  in  us  a  possibility  of 
reaching  certainty  beyond  experience.  Now  to  do 
that  is  to  reach  a  transcendental  truth. 

20.  Transcendental  truths  are  simply  those  neces- 
sary, self-evident,  axiomatic  truths  which  transcend 


TRANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.   49 

experieuce.      Transcendentalism   is   the   science   of 
such  self-evident,  axiomatic,  necessary  truths. 

Kant  gave  this  name  to  a  part  of  his  philosophy, 
and  it  is  by  no  means  a  word  of  reproach.  Of  course 
I  am  treating  Transcendentalism,  not  with  an  eye  on 
New  England  merely,  but  with  due  outlook  on  this 
form  of  philosophy  throughout  the  world,  especially 
upon  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth,  INIansel  and  Mau- 
rice, and  Sir  William  Hamilton,  and  Leibnitz  and 
Kant  and  Lotze.  I  am  not  taking  Transcendental- 
ism in  that  narrow  meaning  in  which  some  opponents 
of  it  may  have  represented  it  to  themselves.  That 
every  change,  here  and  everywhere,  not  only  has,  but 
must  have,  a  cause,  is  a  transcendental  truth :  it  tran- 
scends experience.  So  the  certainty  that  here  and 
everywhere  things  which  are  equal  to  the  same  thing 
are  equal  to  each  other  is  a  transcendental  certainty. 
Our  conviction  in  the  moral  field  that  sin  can  be  a 
quality  only  of  voluntary  action  is  a  transcendental 
fact.  This  moral  axiom  we  feel  is  sure  in  all  time 
and  in  all  space.  There  are  moral  intuitions  as  well 
as  intellectual.  There  are  aesthetic  intuitions,  I  be- 
lieve ;  and  they  will  yet  produce  a  science  of  the 
beautiful,  as  those  of  the  intellect  and  the  conscience 
produce  sciences  of  the  true  and  the  good.  If  man 
have  no  freedom  of  will,  he  cannot  commit  sins  in  the 
strict  sense,  for  demerit  implies  free  agency  ;  and  we 
feel  that  this  is  a  moral  certainty,  and  you  cannot  go 
behind  it. 

Coleridge  complained  much  in  his  time  of  "that 
compendious  philosophy  wliich    contrives   a  theory 


50  TEAifSCENDENTALISM. 

for  spirit  by  nicknaming  matter,  and  in  a  few  hours 
can  qualify  its  dullest  disciples  to  explain  the  omne 
seihile  by  reducing  all  things  to  impressions,  ideas,  and 
sensations  "  (B'wgra-pli.  Literaria,  chap.  xii.).  What 
would  he  have  said  to  the  recent  attempt  by  Tyndall 
to  niclmame  matter,  and  call  it  mind,  or  a  substance 
with  a  spiritual  and  physical  side  ?  Only  the  other 
day,  Lewes  endeavored  to  nickname  sensation,  and 
call  it  both  the  internal  law  of  the  soul  and  the  ex- 
ternal sense.  Will  you  please  listen  to  an  amazing 
definition  out  of  the  latest,  and  perhaps  the  subtlest 
attempt  to  justify  sensationalism  in  philosophy? 
"  The  sensational  h}^othesis  is  acceptable,  if  by 
sense  we  understand  sendhility  and  its  laws  of  opera- 
tion. This  obliterates  the  very  distinction  insisted 
on  by  the  other  school.  It  includes  all  psychical 
phenomena  under  the  rubric  of  sensibility.  It  en- 
ables pyschological  analysis  to  be  consistent  and  ex- 
haustive." (Lewes's  Problems  of  Life  and  Mind, 
1874,  vol.  i.  p.  208.) 

This  passage  affirms,  that,  if  you  will  say  food  is  the 
body,  food  will  explain  the  body.  If  you  will  take 
the  metal  which  goes  to  make  the  watch  as  not  only 
the  metal,  but  the  plan  of  the  watch  too,  then  your 
matter  and  your  plan  put  together  will  be  the  watch. 
He  wants  sensation  to  mean  sensibility  and  its  laws ; 
that  is  to  say,  he  would  have  the  very  fundamental 
principles  of  our  soul  included  in  this  term,  which, 
thus  interpreted,  I  should  say,  with  Coleridge,  is  a 
nickname.  Such  a  definition  concedes  much  by  im- 
plication ;  but  Lewes  concedes  in  so  many  words,  tJiat, 


TRANSCENDENTALISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.   51 

"  if  by  sense  is  meant  simply  the  five  senses,  the 
reduction  of  all  knowledge  to  a  sensuous  origin  is 
absurd." 

Such  is  the  latest  voice,  my  friends,  from  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Intuitional  school  in  philosophy  ;  and  it 
is  substantially  a  confession,  that,  unless  a  new  defini- 
tion be  given  to  sensation,  the  sensational  philosophy 
must  be  given  up.  Stuart  Mill  afiirmed  that  two  and 
two  might  make  seven  in  Orion,  and  that  a  change 
possibly  might  not  have  a  cause  in  the  North  Star. 
He  was  forced  to  no  greater  straits  than  the  husband 
of  George  Eliot  is,  when  he  says  that  the  only  escape 
from  the  necessity  of  adopting  the  intuitional  philoso- 
phy is  to  assume  its  definitions  as  those  of  the  sensa- 
tional school  itself.  Bloody,  unjust  exploits,  are 
often  performed  by  lawless  men  on  the  battle-field  of 
philosophy ;  but,  after  all,  the  ages  like  to  see  fair 
play.  We  must  observe  the  rules  of  the  game.  When 
Greek  wrestlers  stood  up  together,  the  audience  and 
the  judges  saw  to  it  that  the  rules  of  the  game  were 
observed.  These  were  defined  rigidly.  All  religious 
science  asks  of  scepticism,  in  this  age  or  any  other,  is, 
that  it  will  observe  the  laws  of  the  scientific  method. 
We  must  adhere  to  the  rules  of  the  game  ;  and  when 
established  definitions  are  nicknamed,  as  they  now  are 
by  materialism,  suicide  is  confession.     [Applause.] 


m. 

THEODOEE  PARKER'S  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION. 

THE    SIXTY-FIRST    LECTURE     IN     THE     BOSTON     MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE  JAN.    15. 


"  Si  I'experience  interne  imme'diate  pouvait  nous  tromper,  il  ne 
saurait  y  avoir  poirr  moi  aucune  ve'rite  de  fait,  j'ajoute  ni  de 
raison."  —  Leibnitz. 

"  Corpus  enim  per  se  communis  deliquat  esse, 
Sensus;  quo  nisi  prima  fides  fundata  valebit. 
Hand  erit,  occultis  de  rebus  quo  referentes, 
Confirmare  animi,  quicquam  ratione  queamus." 

LUCKETIUS. 


m. 


THEODORE    PARKER'S    ABSOLUTE    RELI- 
GION. 

PRELUDE  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

It  was  once  my  fortune  in  the  city  of  Edinburgh 
to  visit  the  famous  room  in  which  Burke  and  Hare 
committed  fourteen  murders  by  dropping  men  through 
a  trap-door,  and  afterwards  strangling  them,  that 
they  might  obtain  human  skins  to  sell  to  physicians 
for  medical  purposes.  Across  the  street  from  this 
classical  cellar  of  horrors,  there  used  to  be  an  old 
tan-loft,  in  the  midst  of  a  population  one  quarter  of 
which  was  on  the  poor-roll,  and  another  quarter 
measly  with  the  unreportable  vices.  When  Thomas 
Chalmers  was  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, he  deliberately  selected  this  verminous  and 
murderous  quarter  as  the  spot  in  which  to  begin  a 
crucial  trial  of  a  plan  of  his  for  the  solution  of  the 
problem  as  to  the  management  of  the  poor  in  great 
cities.  It  was  his  audacious  belief,  that  there  is  no 
population  so  degraded  in  any  of  our  large  towns, 
that  it  will  not  maintain  Christian  institutions  if 
once  these  are  fairly  set  on  foot.     Southward  from 

55 


56  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

the  gray  cliff  on  which  Edinburgh's  renowned  his- 
toric castle  stands,  he  took  the  district  called  the 
West  Port,  with  a  population  of  about  two  thousand, 
and  divided  it  into  twenty  sub-districts,  and  ap- 
pointed over  each  one  a  visitor,  sometimes  a  lady, 
and  sometimes  a  gentleman.  It  was  the  business  of 
these  angels  of  mercy  to  go  once  each  week  into 
every  family,  without  exception,  and  to  leave  there, 
not  often  money,  not  always  food,  but  an  invitation 
to  the  cliildren  to  attend  the  industrial  and  religious 
schools,  and  to  parents  to  become  members  of  the 
church  of  which  Chalmers  had  the  supreme  courage 
to  begin  the  formation  in  the  old  tan-loft,  face  to 
face  with  that  room  in  which  fourteen  murders  had 
been  committed.  This  visitation  was  made  thorough. 
Every  person  aided  was  taught  to  pay  something, 
however  little,  for  the  support  of  the  school  and 
church  opened  for  his  benefit.  A  feeling  of  self- 
respect  was  thus  systematically  cultivated.  This 
was  an  essential  portion  of  the  Chalmerian  plan. 
The  enterprise  of  founding  a  self-supporting  church 
among  the  poor  and  vile  in  the  West  Port  of  Edin- 
burg  was  in  five  years  so  successful,  that,  out  of  a 
hundred  and  thirty-two  communicants,  more  than  a 
hundred  in  the  church  were  from  the  population  of 
the  West  Port.  Not  a  child  of  suitable  asre  lived  in 
the  district  and  was  not  in  school.  A  savings  bank 
had  been  instituted,  a  washing-house  had  been 
opened,  an  industrial  school  had  been  maintained 
day  and  night  in  the  secular  portions  of  the  week. 
Better  than  all,  the  entire  expense  of  all  these  insti- 


THEODORE  PARKER's   ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.     57 

tutions,  amounting  to  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
was  paid  by  the  AVest  Port ;  and  that  improved 
section  of  paupers  had  money  enough  every  year  to 
contribute  seventy  pounds  for  benevolent  purposes 
outside  the  borders  of  their  own  territory.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

It  was  thought  this  enterprise  would  fail  on  Chal- 
mers's death ;  but,  so  far  from  doing  so,  his  famous 
territorial  church  is  to-day  in  a  flourishing  condition, 
and  has  been  extensively  copied  in  Scotland.  His 
plan  of  territorial  visitation  and  self-supporting  reli- 
gious enterprises  has  become  one  of  the  best  hopes  of 
the  poor  in  Scotland's  great  cities.  I  worshipped 
once  in  the  West  Port  church,  and  found  there  the 
names  of  fifty  or  sixty  church-officers  of  various  kinds 
posted  up  on  the  doors,  and  arranged  in  couples,  with 
their  specific  districts  for  visitation  definitely  named 
on  the  bulletin.  A  hushed,  crowded  audience  of  the 
cleanly  and  respectable  poor  listened  to  a  vigorous 
address,  and  made  touching  contributions  for  reli- 
gious purposes.  Mr.  Tasker,  the  pastor  whom  Chal- 
mers had  chosen,  said  to  me  at  his  tea-table,  "  There 
is  nae  rat  in  yon  kirk.  I  told  the  people  at  the  first 
I  would  na  minister  to  a  congregation  of  paupers. 
Every  steady  attendant  pays  more  or  less,  and  so 
keeps  up  self-respect.  He  helps  the  poor  most  who 
helps  them  to  help  themselves.  Yon  kirk  is  self-sup- 
porting." 

Chalmers  did  not  live  to  see  these  larger  results ; 
but  he  saw  enough  to  cause  him  to  anticipate  them ; 
and  he  perfectly  understood  the  vast  political  impor- 


58  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tance  of  the  complex  problem  lie  had  attacked.  He 
foresaw  that  more  and  more  the  population  of  the 
world  must  mass  itself  in  cities.  His  experiment  he 
did  not  consider  complete  without  aid  from  the  civil 
arm,  which  ought  to  second  the  efforts  of  philanthro- 
py by  executing  all  righteous  public  law. 

Most  eloquently  Chalmers  wrote  in  his  advancing 
years  :  "  I  would  again  implore  the  aid  of  the  author- 
ities for  the  removal  of  all  these  moral,  and  the  aid  of 
the  Sanitary  Board  for  the  removal  of  all  those  physi- 
cal, nuisances  and  discomforts  which  are  found  to  exist 
within  a  territory  so  full  of  misery  and  vice  at  pres- 
ent, yet  so  full  of  promise  for  the  future.  Could  1 
gain  this  help  from  our  men  in  power,  and  this  co-opera- 
tion from  the  Board  of  Health,  then  with  the  virtue 
which  lies  in  education,  and,  above  all,  the  hallowing 
influence  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  should  look, 
though  in  humble  dependence  on  the  indispensable  grace 
from  on  high,  for  such  a  result  as,  at  least  in  its  first  be- 
ginnitigs,  I  could  interpret  itito  the  streaks  and  daivnings 
of  a  better  dag  ;  when,  after  the  struggles  and  discomforts 
of  thirty  years,  I  might  depart  in  peace,  and  leave  the 
further  prosecutioii  of  our  enterprise  with  comfort  and 
calmness  in  the  hands  of  another  generations'^  (See  Me- 
moirs of  Chalmers,  by  Reverend  Williaim  Hanna, 
London,  1859,  chapter  entitled  "  The  West  Port,"  p. 
413.) 

Chalmers's  celebrated  scheme  for  throttling  the 
troubles  of  the  poor  and  vicious  in  great  towns  em- 
braced these  three  provisions :  — 

Territorial  visitation,  or  systematic  going  about 
from  house  to  house  doing  good. 


THEODORE  PARKER'S  ABSOLUTE  RETJGION.     59 

Self-supporting  benevolent  and  religious   institu- 
tions among  the  needy  and  degraded. 

The  execution  of  righteous  law  against  the  tempt- 
ers and  fleecers  of  the  poor.     [Applause.] 

Gentlemen,  some  of  us  here  are  young  yet ;  and 
we  have  heard  the  departing  footsteps  of  the  great 
problem  of  slavery  in  our  own  land.  We  who  have  in 
expectation  our  brief  careers  are  listening  to  the  first 
heavy  footfalls  of  a  far  more  menacing*  problem,  that 
concerning  greed  and  fraud  in  politics,  when  the 
gigantic  and  crescent  party-spoils  of  a  land  greater 
than  Caesar  ever  ruled  are  made  the  reward  of  merely 
party  success.  But  behind  that  black  angel,  with 
his  far-spreading  Gehenna  wings  shadowing  both  our 
ocean  shores,  some  of  us  who  are  looking  forward,  and 
are  rash,  as  you  think,  can  but  notice  the  stealthy  ad- 
vance of  another  fell  spirit  with  whom  we  must  con- 
tend; and  his  name  is,  The  Metropolitan.  He  is 
the  genius  that  presides  over  the  neglect  of  the  poor  in 
great  towns.  He  is  the  archfiend,  who,  as  the  growth 
of  all  means  of  intercommunication,  causes  the  world 
to  mass  its  population  more  and  more  in  cities, 
breathes  upon  many  fashionable  churches  the  sirocco 
of  luxury,  and  leaves  them  swinging  in  hammocks, 
attached,  on  the  one  side,  to  the  Cross,  and  on  the  other 
to  the  forefinger  of  Mammon,  and  not  easy  even  then, 
unless  they  are  eloquently  fanned  [applause],  and 
sprinkled,  as  the  Eastern  host  sprinkles  his  guest,  with 
lavender  ease.  [Applause.]  Meanwhile,  the  fiend 
Metropolitan  Evil  advances  with  a  footfall  that  already 
sometimes   rocks   the   continent,  and  yet  it  appears 


60  TRANSCENDENTAIJSM. 

to  be  unheard.  Now  and  then  the  cloven,  ominous 
hoof  breaks  through  the  thin  crust,  and  there  starts 
up  a  blue  flame,  as  at  Paris  in  communism ;  but  the 
light  is  unheeded.  Twenty  centuries  will  yet  be 
obliged  to  look  at  it.  One-fifth  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States  is  now  in  cities,  and  we  had  but  one 
twenty-fifth  in  cities  at  the  opening  of  the  century. 
The  disproportionate  growth  of  great  towns  is  a 
phenomenon  of  all  civilized  lands,  and  not  simply  of 
the  United  States.  London  increases  faster  than 
England,  Berlin  than  Germany,  as  well  as  New-York 
City  than  New- York  State,  and  Chicago  than  Illi- 
nois. 

This  last  week  in  Boston,  the  American  Social 
Science  Association  discussed  work  schools  in  cities, 
—  a  topic  not  likely  to  look  empty  to  honest  eyes. 
Much  after  Thomas  Chalmers's  plan,  there  was  found- 
ed at  the  North  End,  yesterday,  a  biblical  and  evan- 
gelical, but  wholly  undenominational,  church  for  the 
poor.     It  is  a  good  sign.     [Applause.] 

Boston  is  now  a  crescent,  stretching  around  the  tip 
of  the  tongue  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  from  Chelsea 
Beach  to  the  Milton  Hills.  When  you  and  I  are  here 
no  longer,  this  growing  young  moon  will  embrace 
Mount  Auburn,  and  line  with  its  increasing  light  both 
shores  of  our  azure  sea  for  miles  toward  the  sunrise. 
It  is,  however,  unsafe  to  act  upon  the  supposition, 
which  some  seem  to  harbor,  that  all  the  old  peninsula 
here  will  be  needed  as  a  stately  commercial  exchange, 
and  that  the  very  poor  can  be  crowded  out  of  it,  into 
homes  beyond  a  ferr}'^,  or  reached  only  by  railway. 


THEODORE   PARKEE's   ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.      61 

The  poorest  of  the  poor  must  live  very  near  their 
•work.  We  want  model  lodging-houses  for  them,  like 
the  London  Waterlow  buildings,  which  pay  six  per 
cent  on  their  cost.  For  a  more  fortunate  class  we 
must  have  cheap  houses  outside  municipal  limits. 
But,  more  than  all,  we  want  self-supporting  churches 
among  the  destitute  and  degraded. 

Boston  is  more  favorably  situated  than  any  other 
American  city  to  show  how  democracy  and  Chris- 
tianity can  govern  a  great  town  well.  First  at  the 
throat  of  Slavery,  will  Boston  be  the  first  American 
city  to  throttle  Metropolitan  Evil  ? 

Chalmers  used  to  affirm,  that  cities  can  be  managed 
morally  as  well  as  the  country-side,  if  their  religious 
privileges  are  made  as  great  in  proportion  to  their 
population. 

But,  gentlemen,  wliile  we  embrace  every  opportu- 
nity to  call  out  the  efforts  of  the  church  in  personal 
visitation  of  the  poor,  and  in  the  founding  of  self- 
supporting  religious  institutions,  let  us  not  forget 
the  responsibility  of  the  civil  arm  for  the  shutting 
up  of  the  dens  of  temptation.  [Applause.]  If  you 
will  visit  your  more  desolate  quarters  in  this  city,  — 
and  the  most  infamously  vicious  are  not  at  the  North 
End, —  you  will  find  reason  to  go  home  with  something 
more  substantial  as  your  programme  of  future  efforts 
than  weak  regrets,  expressed  at  your  fireside  over 
aesthetic  tea  and  your  newspaper,  about  the  lack  of 
the  execution  of  good  laws  here.  [Applause.]  Sev- 
enty-five millions  of  dollars  in  this  city  are  engaged  in 
the  liquor-traffic ;  and,  if  I  could  shut  up  the  multi- 


62  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tiidiiious  doors  to  temptation,  I  might  shut  up  the 
alms-houses.  This  is  so  trite  a  truth,  that  you  blame 
me  for  presenting  it ;  but  your  Governor  Andrew 
used  to  say,  that  this  truth  is  trite  only  because  it  is 
so  superabundantly  true  and  important  as  to  have 
been  repeated  over  and  over. 

You  loathe  the  unjust  judges  of  history;  you 
place  in  pillories  of  infamy  men  whose  duty  it  has 
been  to  execute  law,  and  have  not  done  it.  Are  you 
safe  from  such  pillories  ?  When  we,  as  American 
freemen,  give  in  our  account  before  that  bar  where 
there  is  no  shuffling,  we  shall  do  so  as  a  population  to 
whom  the  sword  of  justice  was  given  largely  in  vain. 
We  the  people,  and  especially  that  professional  class 
represented  here,  are  intrusted  with  power,  most  of 
which  is  not  a  terror  to  evil-doers,  nor  a  praise  to  them 
who  do  well.  Under  the  murky  threats  of  the  years 
ahead  of  us,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  parlor,  the  pulpit, 
the  press,  politics,  and  the  police  —  the  five  great 
powers  of  these  modern  ages  —  to  join  arms  and  go 
forward  in  one  phalanx  for  the  execution  of  all  those 
just  public  enactments  which  shut  places  of  tempta- 
tion, and  leave  a  man  a  good  chance  to  be  born  right 
the  second  time  by  being  born  right  the  first  time. 
[Applause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

Professor  Tholuck,  in  his  garden  at  Halle-on-the- 
Saale,  once  said  to  me,  "  The  Tiibingen  school,  as 
you  know,  is  no  longer  in  existence  at  Tiibingen  it- 
self :  as  a  sect  in  biblical  criticism,  it  has  perished : 


THEODORE   PARKER's   ABSOLUTE  RELIGION.     63 

its  history  has  heen  written  in  more  than  one  lan- 
gnage.  Only  a  few  years  ago,  however,  we  had  six 
broad-backed  Englishmen  take  their  seats  on  the 
university  benches  at  Tiibingen,  and  ask  to  be  taught 
Bauer's  theology.  But  Professors  Beck  and  Landerer 
and  Palmer,  who  oppose  that  scheme  of  thought,  now 
outgrown  among  oui'  best  scholars,  told  tlie  sturdy 
sons  of  Britain,  that  they  must  seek  elsewhere  for 
instruction  of  that  sort ;  whereupon  they  turned  their 
faces  homeward,  sadder,  but  wiser." 

Theodore  Parker  was  a  scholar  of  the  Tubingen 
school.  His  characteristic  positions  concerning  the 
Bible  are  those  which  have  seen  battle  and  defeat  of 
late  in  Germany.  They  are  perfectly  familiar  to  all 
who  have  studied  that  great  range  of  criticism  called 
the  Tiibinrjen  exegetical  biblical  criticism.  This  had 
great  influence  about  the  time  Parker  was  forming 
his  opinions;  and  he  began  his  public  career  by 
launching  himself  upon  what  time  has  proved  to  be 
only  a  re-actionary  eddy,  and  not  the  gulf-current, 
of  scholarsliip.  (See  article  on  the  "  Decline  of  Ra- 
tionalism in  the  German  Universities,"  Bih.  Sacra., 
October,  1875.)  His  first  work  was  a  translation  of 
De  Wette.  In  his  formative  years  of  study  the  now 
outgrown  Tubingen  critics  were  his  chief  reading. 

In  philosophy,  as  distinguished  from  biblical  re- 
search, we  all  see  that  Theodore  Parker  has  founded 
no  new  school.  His  distinctive  positions  have  no 
large  following,  even  among  our  erratics.  Mr.  Frotli- 
ingham  of  New- York  City,  who  is  one  of  his  biogra- 
phers, and  perhaps  more  nearly  than  any  other  man 


64  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

his  successor,  said  in  1864,  in  the  North  American 
Review,  that  he  anticipates  for  Theodore  Parker  as  a 
metaphysician  no  immortality. 

Let  me  quiet  your  apprehensions,  gentlemen,  by 
aihrming  at  the  outset  my  reverence  for  Theodore 
Parker's  antislavery  principles.  [Applause.]  Theo- 
dore Parker's  memory  stands  in  the  past  as  a  statue. 
The  rains,  and  biting  sleet,  and  winds  beat  upon  it. 
A  part  of  the  statue  is  of  clay :  a  part  is  of  bronze. 
The  clay  is  his  theological  speculation :  the  bronze 
is  his  antislavery  action.  The  clay  will  be  washed 
away ;  already  it  crumbles.  The  bronze  will  endure  ; 
and,  if  men  are  of  my  mind,  it  will  form  a  figure  to 
be  venerated.     [Applause.] 

What  are  the  most  essential  positions  of  Theodore 
Parker's  absolute  religion '? 

1.  That  man  has  an  instinctive  intuition  of  the 
fact  of  the  Divine  existence. 

2.  That  he  has  an  instinctive  intuition  of  the  exist- 
ence and  authority  of  the  moral  law. 

3.  That  he  has  an  instinctive  intuition  of  his  own 
immortality. 

4.  That  an  infinitely-perfect  God  is  omnipresent  or 
immanent  in  the  world  of  matter  and  in  that  of  spirit. 

5.  That  this  idea  of  the  Divine  Perfection  and  Im- 
manence is  unknown  to  both  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New,  and  to  every  popular  theology. 

6.  That  the  accounts  of  miracles  in  the  Bible  are 
all  untrustworthy. 

7.  That,  when  we  are  free  from  the  love  of  sin,  we 
are  also  free  from  the  guilt  of  it. 


THEODORE  PARKER's   ABSOLUTE  RELIGION.     65 

8.  That  sin  is  the  tripping  of  a  •child  who  is  learn- 
ing to  walk,  or  a  necessary,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
inculpable  stage  in  human  progress. 

A  very  ugly  and  dangerous  set  of  propositions  are 
these  last  four ;  a  rather  inspiring  set  are  the  first 
four:  but  all  eight  were  Theodore  Parker's.  (See 
Weiss's  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  ii.  pp.  455,  470,  472.) 
Some  of  his  hearers  fed  themselves  on  the  former, 
some  on  the  latter ;  and  hence  the  opposite  effects  he 
seemed  to  produce  in  different  cases.  It  was  on  the 
first  four  that  he  not  doubtfully  supposed  himself  to 
have  been  successful  in  founding  what  he  called  an 
absolute,  or  natural  rehgion. 

No  other  document  written  by  Theodore  Parker  is 
so  important,  as  an  exposition  of  his  views,  as  that 
touching,  but  in  places  almost  coarsely  irreverent, 
letter  sent  from  the  West  Indies  to  the  Tv/enty 
eighth  Congregational  Society,  after  he  had  fled 
away  from  America  to  die.  Nothing  else  in  that 
letter,  which  he  called  "  Parker's  Apology  for  Him- 
self," is  as  important  as  this  central  passage :  — 

"  I  found  certain  great  primal  intuitions  of  hiiman  nature, 
■which  depend  on  no  logical  process  of  demonstration,  but  ai'e 
rather  facts  of  consciousness  given  by  the  instinctive  action  of 
human  nature  itself.  I  will  mention  only  the  three  most  im- 
portant which  pertain  to  religion :  — 

"  1.  The  instinctive  intuition  of  the  divine,  —  the  conscious- 
ness that  there  is  a  God. 

"2.  The  instinctive  intuition  of  the  just  and  right,  —  a  con- 
sciousness that  there  is  a  moral  law  mdependent  of  our  will, 
which  wo  ought  to  keep. 

"  3.  The  instinctive  intiiition  of  the  immortal,  —  a  conscious- 


QQ  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

ness  that  the  essential,element  of  man,  the  principle  of  individ- 
uality, never  dies. 

"  Here,  then,  was  the  foundation  of  religion,  laid  in  human 
nature  itself,  which  neither  the  atheist  nor  the  more  pernicious 
bigot,  with  their  sophisms  of  denial  or  affirmation,  could  move, 
or  even  shake.  I  had  gone  tlirough  the  great  spiritual  trial  of 
my  life,  telling  no  one  of  its  hopes  or  fears;  and  I  thought  it  a 
trimnph  that  I  had  psychologically  established  these  three  things 
to  my  own  satisfaction,  and  devised  a  scheme,  which,  to  the 
scholar's  mind,  I  thought  could  legitimate  what  was  sponta- 
neously given  to  aU  by  the  great  primal  instincts  of  mankind. 
.  .  .  From  the  primitive  facts  of  consciousness  given  by  the 
power  of  instinctive  intuition,  I  endeavored  to  deduce  the  true 
notion  of  God,  of  justice,  and  futurity.  Here  I  could  draw 
from  human  nature,  and  not  be  hindered  by  the  limitations  of 
human  history;  but  I  know  now,  better  than  it  was  possible 
then,  how  difficult  is  this  work,  and  how  often  the  inquirer  mis- 
takes his  own  subjective  imagination  for  a  fact  of  the  universe. 
It  is  for  others  to  decide  tvhether  I  have  sometimes  mistaken  a  little 
grain  of  brilliant  dust  in  my  telescope  for  a  fixed  star  in  heaven. 
[Applause.]     (Weiss:  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  ii.  p.  455.) 

Julius  Miiller,  professor  in  the  University  of  Halle, 
is  commonly  regarded  now  as  the  greatest  theologian 
in  the  world.  His  chief  book  is  a  discussion  of  sin. 
From  first  to  last,  his  scheme  of  natural  religion  is 
built  with  scientific  exactness  on  self-evident,  axiom- 
atic, intuitive  truth.  The  very  rock  on  which  Parker 
planted  his  foot  is  a  corner-stone  of  the  acutest 
evangelical  theology  of  the  globe  to-day.  Read 
Julius  Miiller's  discussions  (^Doctrine  of  Sin,  trans,  in 
T.  &  T.  Clark's  Library,  Edinburgh),  and  you  will 
find  liim  more  reverent  than  Theodore  Parker  toward 
intuitive,   axiomatic,  self-evident  propositions  of  aU 


THEODORE  PAEKER's  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION.     67 

kinds.  He,  however,  has  cleared  the  whole  surface 
of  the  rock  of  wliich  Parker,  in  his  haste,  saw  but  a 
part.  Instead  of  building  on  that  broader  founda- 
tion a  slight  structure,  he  has  begun  the  erection  of 
a  palace.  He  has  been  obliged  to  stretch  its  founda- 
tions out  to  correspond  in  every  part  with  the  once 
unsuspected  extent  of  this  whole  support  of  natural 
adamant.  Parker  strangely  overlooked  the  fact  that 
we  have  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  sin  as  a  fact  in 
our  personal  experience.  That  knowledge  must 
shape  our  philosophy.  Building  upon  it,  Julius  Miil- 
ler  did  not  ask  whether  the  rising  walls  he  con- 
structed would  or  would  not  meet,  point  for  point, 
the  walls  of  the  celestial  city,  which,  Revelation 
teaches,  lay  in  the  air  above  liim.  He  did  not  look 
upward  at  all,  but  downward  only,  upon  this  revela- 
tion in  the  constitutional  intuitions  and  instincts. 
He  explored  conscience.  He  brought  to  the  light 
the  surface  of  the  whole  rock  of  intuitive  moral 
truth,  and  not  merely  that  of  a  part  of  it.  He  built 
around  its  edges  after  the  plan  shown  in  the  adamant 
itself.  It  turns  out,  that  to-day  Germany  calls  that 
man  her  chief  theologian,  because  it  has  found  that 
these  walls,  rising  from  the  adamant  of  axiomatic 
truth,  wholly  without  regard  to  the  foundations  of 
the  floating  celestial  city  above,  are  conterminous 
and  correspondent  with  those  upper  walls  in  every 
part,  and  that  the  two  palaces  are  one.  [Applause.] 
It  is  a  solemn  provision  of  the  courts  of  law,  that 
a  man  under  oath  must  tell  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth.     In  the  use  of  intuitions  and 


68  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

instincts,  experiment  and  syllogism,  the  thing  I  am 
chiefly  anxious  about,  is,  that  we  clear  the  whole 
platform  before  we  begin  to  build.  We  must  take 
the  testimony  of  all  the  intuitions  ;  we  must  be  will- 
ing to  look  into  the  deliverance  of  all  the  instincts ; 
we  must  neglect  no  part  of  man's  experiments,  con- 
tinued, age  after  age,  in  his  philanthropic  and  reli- 
gious life  ;  we  must  revere  the  syllogism  everywhere. 
James  Freeman  Clarke  has  repeatedly  pointed  out, 
that  an  inadequate  use  of  our  intuitive  knowledge  of 
the  fact  of  sin  in  personal  experience  is  a  most 
searching  and  perhaps  fatal  flaw  in  Parker's  scheme 
of  thought.  Give  our  intuitive  knowledge  of  the 
fact  of  sin  its  proper  place,  and,  if  you  are  true  to 
the  scientific  method,  the  fact  that  you  are  sick  will 
make  you  ask  for  a  physician.  I  am  not  asserting 
the  sufficiency,  but  only  the  efficiency,  of  a  wholly 
scientific,  natural  religion.  Every  day  it  becomes 
clearer  to  philosophical  scholarship,  that  the  whole 
deliverance  of  the  Works  is  synonymous,  in  every 
vocal  and  in  every  whispered  syllable,  with  the  whole 
deliverance  of  the  Word.  Certain  it  is,  that  the 
whole  list  of  moral  intuitions,  of  which  Theodore 
Parker  made  use  of  but  a  part,  is  the  basis  of  the 
acutest  evangelical  natural  theology  to-day.  When 
I  compare  the  structure  that  Theodore  Parker 
erected  here  in  Boston  on  a  fragment  of  this  adamant 
of  axiomatic  truth,  it  seems  to  me  a  careless  cabin, 
as  contrasted  with  Julius  Miiller's  palatial  work. 
What  your  New-York  palace,  appointed  in  every 
part  well,  is  to  that  wretched  squatter's  tenement, 


THEODORE  PARKER's   ABSOLUTE  RELIGION.     69 

standing,  it  may  be,  face  to  face  with  it  in  the  upper 
part  of  ]\Ianhattan  Island  yonder,  such  is  the  com- 
plete intuitional  religious  philosophy,  compared  with 
Theodore  Parker's  absolute  religion.     [Applause.] 

What  are  the  more  important  errors  in  Theodore 
Parker's  system  of  thought  ? 

1.  It  is  possible  to  imagine  that,  the  soul  is  not 
immortal. 

Every  materialist  here  will  of  course  grant  me  this 
proposition.  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  I  think  it 
entirely  possible  to  imagine  the  non-existence  of  the 
soul  as  a  personality  after  death.  The  idea  of  the 
soul's  immortality  is,  therefore,  not  a  necessary  idea. 
Of  course  spiritual  substance,  like  material  substance, 
we  suppose  to  be  indestructible  ;  but,  as  a  personal- 
ity, the  soul  may  at  least  be  imagined  to  cease  to 
exist.  I  cannot,  however,  so  much  as  imagine  that 
space  should  not  exist,  or  that  time  should  not,  or 
that  every  change  should  not  have  a  cause.  There 
is  a  perfect  incapacity  in  my  mind  to  conceive  of  the 
annihilation  of  space  or  time :  therefore  it  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  the  idea  of  the  soul's  immortality  is 
not  a  necessary  idea  in  the  same  sense  in  which  my 
ideas  of  space  and  time  are  necessary  ideas. 

Nor  is  this  idea  of  immortality  a  universal  idea,  as 
that  of  space  or  time  is.  Some  sane  men  appear  to 
be  without  any  confidence  in  immortality  as  a  fact ; 
but  there  never  was  a  sound  mind  that  did  not  act 
upon  the  practical  supposition  that  every  change 
must  have  a  cause,  and  that  a  thing  cannot  be  and 
not  be  at  the  same  time  in  the  same  sense.     Your 


70  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

urcliin  on  Boston  Common  who  holds  a  ball  in  his 
hand  behind  him,  and  who  hears  the  assertion  from 
some  other  urchin,  that  the  ball  is  in  another  place, 
knows  better.  lie  has  the  ball  in  his  hand;  and  he 
is  perfectly  confident  that  the  same  thing  cannot  be 
and  not  be  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  sense. 
You  state  that  proposition  to  him,  and  he  will  stare 
at  you  with  wide  eyes.  He  knows  nothing  of  the 
metaphysical  statement:  nevertheless,  that  propo- 
sition is  in  his  possession  implicitly,  though  not 
explicitly.  He  acts  upon  it  with  perfect  intelligence. 
He  knows  that  the  ball  is  in  his  hand,  and  that 
therefore  that  ball  is  not  anywhere  else.  This  is 
a  self-evident,  axiomatic,  necessary  belief,  or  an  intui- 
tion in  the  scientific  sense  of  the  word.  Not  in 
that  sense,  can  we  call  the  fact  of  immortality  an 
intuitive  truth. 

We  have  an  instinctive  anticipation  of  existence 
after  death.  We  can  prove  that.  There  is  no  real 
intuition  of  existence  after  death. 

The  proposition  that  the  soul  is  immortal  is  there- 
fore not  marked  by  the  three  traits  of  intuitive  truth, 
—  self-evidence,  necessity,  and  universality. 

Only  a  slovenly  scholarship  could  assert  that  this 
proposition  is  marked  by  these  traits.  Theodore 
Parker  asserted,  however,  that  the  fact  of  immortality 
is  an  intuitive  truth.  This  unsupported  assertion 
was  a  corner-stone  of  his  absolute  religion. 

You  will,  therefore,  allow  me  to  say,  that,  — 

2.  Theodore  Parker  did  not  carefully  distinguish 
from  each  other  intuition  and  instinct. 


THEODOIIE  PAEKER's  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION.      71 

To  blunder  on  that  point  is  so  common,  that  I  shall 
be  unable  to  convince  you  of  the  importance  of  error 
there,  unless  you  take  pains  in  your  libraries  to  apply 
these  tests  of  self-e%ddence,  necessity,  and  imiversality 
to  a  certain  class  of  truths,  and  see  how  the  tests 
distinfTuish  that  class  from  every  other  set  of  proposi- 
tions that  you  can  imagine.  Only  those  truths  which 
show  the  traits  of  self-evidence,  necessity,  and  univer- 
sality, are  intuitive.  Loose  popular  speech  may  use 
the  word  intuition  carelessly;  but  when  a  great 
reader  like  Theodore  Parker  confounds  instinct  and 
intuition^  and  speaks  now  about  our  having  an  intui- 
tion, and  now  of  our  possessing  an  instinctive  intui- 
tion of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  we  must  say  that 
he  is  careless  ;  for  it  is  two  thousand  years  now  that 
self-evidence,  necessity,  and  universality  have  been 
used  as  the  tests  of  intuitive  truth.  Between  an  in- 
stinct and  an  intuition  there  is  as  palpable  a  distinction 
as  between  the  right  hand  and  the  left ;  and  to  con- 
fuse the  two,  as  Theodore  Parker's  deliberate  speech 
does,  is  unscholarly  to  the  degree  of  being  slovenly. 
I  put  once  before  the  chief  authority  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity in  metaphysics  the  question,  whether  meta- 
physical scholars  have  commonly  classed  immortality 
among  the  intuitive  truths.^  He  smiled,  and  said, 
"  Who  taught  you  that  they  have  ?  "  —  "  Why,  I  have 
read,"  said  I,  "  that  there  was  once  in  Boston  a  reli- 
gion built  up  on  the  idea  that  immortality  is  an  intu- 
ition." And  the  smile  became  even  broader,  although 
the  man  was  very  liberal  in  his  theology.  "  Theodore 
Parker,"  said  he,  "  was  not  a  consecutive,  philosoph- 


72  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

ical  thinker.  No  metaphysician  of  repute  has  ever 
classed  immortality  among  the  intuitive  truths,  al- 
though it  has  again  and  again  been  classed  as  a  deliv- 
erance of  our  instincts." 

3.  It  is  not  safe  to  assert,  as  Parker  does,  that  the 
Divine  Existence  is  a  strictly  intuitive  truth. 

Pace  amantis  !  Peace  to  all  lovers  of  the  doctrine 
that  belief  in  the  Divine  Existence  is  intuitive  !  I 
wish  to  treat  reverently  that  school  of  philosophy 
which  asserts  that  we  have  an  intuition,  strictly  so- 
called,  of  the  fact  that  God  exists.  To  me  the  Di- 
vine Existence  is  evident ;  but  it  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  self-evident.  It  is  evident  by  only  one 
step  of  reasoning,  and  is  the  highest  of  derivative, 
but  is  not  really  a  primitive,  first  truth,  or  axiomatic 
fact.  It  is  as  sure  as  any  axiom ;  but  it  is  not  an 
axiom  that  God  is.  I  can,  I  tliink,  imagine  that 
God  might  not  exist.  I  cannot  imagine  that  space 
does  not,  or  that  time  does  not.  I  know  that  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  said  that  space  and  time  are  attri- 
butes, and  that  every  attribute  must  inhere  in  some 
substance,  and  that  if  space  and  time  are  necessary 
existences,  and  are  really  objective  to  the  mind,  and 
not  merely  a  green  color  thrown  upon  the  universe 
by  the  mental  spectacles  which  we  now  wear,  then 
God  must  be,  for  space  and  time  must  be.  Pace 
amantis^  once  more  I  I  know  how  many  scholars 
agree  in  the  opinion  that  time  and  space  are  merely 
necessary  ideas,  and  not  objectively  real.  They  are 
in  the  color  of  the  glasses  through  which  we  look. 
The  truth  is,  that  recent  philosophy  more  and  more 


THEODORE   PARKER's   ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.      73 

approaches  the  conclusion  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  that 
space  and  time  are  objectively  real.  Dr.  INIcCosh  of 
Princeton,  George  Henry  Lewes,  materialistic  though 
he  is,  and  a  score  of  other  recent  representatives  of 
rival  philosophical  schools,  regard  space  and  time  as 
mysterious  somewhats,  which  very  possibly  have  a 
real  existence  outside  our  spectacles.  They  are  not 
simply  necessary  ideas,  fixed  colors  in  our  spectacles, 
but  something  outside  of  us. 

Now  it  is  true,  that,  if  space  and  time  be  objec- 
tively real,  they  imply  the  existence  of  something 
that  is  just  as  necessary  in  its  existence,  and  just  as 
eternal,  as  they.  If  they  are  qualities  of  any  thing, 
instead  of  mere  colors  in  the  lenses  through  which 
we  look,  there  must  be  a  substance  that  is  necessary 
in  its  existence,  eternal,  and  absolutely  independent ; 
and  that  can  be  only  an  infinitely  perfect  being. 
You  cannot  imagine  the  non-existence  of  space  or 
time ;  you  cannot  think  that  they  ever  were  not,  or 
that  they  ever  will  cease  to  be ;  and  so,  if  they  are 
attributes,  they  are  the  attributes  of  a  Being  that 
was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come. 

Many  are  now  turning  to  that  philosophy  which 
the  later  and  the  older  investigation  supports, — 
namely,  that  space  and  time  are  objectively  real,  and 
that  this  fact  contains  incontrovertible  proof  of  the 
Divine  Self-Existence.  But  you  derive  that  argu- 
ment from  the  existence  of  space  and  time ;  you  do 
not  look  directly  upon  the  Divine  Existence  even 
then.  There  is  a  single  step  of  reasoning ;  and  so 
the  truth,  although  evident,  is  not  self-evident. 


74  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

I  know  how  many  are  puzzled  to  prove  the  Divine 
Self-Existence.  Paley's  argument  from  the  watch, 
we  are  told  by  some  who  misunderstand  it,  proves 
too  much.  A  design  proves  a  designer?  Yes.  But 
must  not  God  himself,  then,  have  had  a  designer,  and 
his  designer  a  designer,  and  his  designer  a  designer, 
and  so  on  forever?  This  inquiry  is  familiar  to  reli- 
gious science  under  the  name  of  the  question  as  to  the 
Infinite  Series.  The  reply  to  all  that  tantalizing  ob- 
jection is,  that  intuitive  truth  demonstrates  the  exist- 
ence of  dependent  being,  and  that  there  cannot  be 
a  dependent  without  an  independent  being.  There 
cannot' be  a  here  without  there  being  a  tliere^  can 
there  ?  There  cannot  be  a  before  without  there  being 
an  after^  can  there  ?  There  cannot  be  an  upper  with- 
out there  being  an  under^  can  there  ?  If,  therefore, 
I  can  prove  there  is  a  here,  I  can  prove  there  is  a 
there ;  if  I  can  prove  there  is  a  before,  I  can  prove 
there  is  an  after;  if  I  can  prove  there  is  an  upper,  I 
can  prove  there  is  an  under.  Just  so,  by  logical 
necessity,  there  cannot  be  a  dependent  being  without 
an  independent ;  and  I  am  a  dependent  being,  and 
therefore  there  is  an  Independent  or  Self-Existent 
Being.     [Applause.] 

•  Thus  I  must  be  cautious  or  modest  enough  not  to 
assert  that  we  have  a  direct  intuition  of  the  Divine 
Existence.  This  truth  is  instinctive,  not  intuitive. 
It  seems  to  lie  capsulate  in  all  our  highest  instincts. 
Our  sense  of  dependence  and  obligation,  great  facts, 
if  barely  scratched  with  the  point  of  a  scalpel  of 
analysis,  reveal  Almighty  God,  and  make  the  soul's 


THEODORE   PARKER's   ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.      75 

cheeks  pale.  I  cannot  affirm,  however,  that  the 
Divine  Existence  is  self-evident,  although  it  is  evi- 
dent as  the  noon. 

Theodore  Parker's  assertion  that  the  Divine  Exist- 
ence is  known  to  us  by  intuition  implies  that  this 
truth  has  the  three  traits  of  self-evidence,  necessity, 
and  universality. 

Only  a  slovenly  scholarship  can  assert  that  the 
truth  possesses  these  traits. 

On  a  score  of  other  points,  it  might  be  shown  that 
Parker  was  misled,  by  not  making  a  sharp  distinction 
between  instinct  and  intuition. 

4.  He  did  not  carefully  distmguish  inspiration 
from  illumination. 

Once  more :  peace  to  the  lovers  of  the  doctrine 
that  modern  men  of  genius  are  inspired  more  or  less 
—  especially  less  I 

There  is  a  book  composed  of  sixtj^-six  pamphlets, 
written  in  different  ages,  some  of  them  barbarous ; 
and  I  affirm  that  there  are  in  the  volume  no  adulter- 
ate moral  elements.  It  is  a  winnoAved  book.  Its 
winnowedness  is  a  fact  made  tangible  by  ages  of  the 
world's  experience.  Of  course  I  need  not  say  to 
this  distinguished  audience,  what  Galileo  said  to  his 
persecutors,  that  the  Bible  is  given  to  teach  how  to 
go  to  heaven,  and  not  how  the  heavens  go.  Do  not 
suppose  that  inspiration  guarantees  infallibility  in 
merely  botanical  truth.  A  small  philosopher  said  to 
me  once,  "  The  Bible  affirms  that  the  mustard-seed 
L<3  the  smallest  of  all  seeds.  Now,  there  are  seeds 
BO  small,  that  they  cannot  be  seen  with  the  naked 


76  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

eye.  Where,  therefore,  is  your  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion?" I  thought  that  man's  mind  was  the  smallest 
of  all  mustard-seeds.  Inspiration  is  rightly  defined 
in  religious  science  as  the  gift  of  infallibility  in 
teaching  moral  and  religious  truth.  The  Scriptures 
are  given  by  inspiration  in  this  sense,  and  therefore 
are  profitable  for  what  ?  For  botany  ?  That  is  not 
the  record.  They  are  profitable  for  reproof,  correc- 
tion, and  instruction  in  righteousness.  They  are  a 
rule  of  religious,  and  not  of  botanical,  faith  and 
practice.  My  mutsard-seed  philosopher,  like  many 
another  objector  to  the  doctrine  of  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scripture,  appeared  to  be  in  ignorance  of  the 
definition  of  inspiration. 

Perfect  moral  and  religious  winnow edness  exists  in 
the  Bible,  and  in  no  other  book  in  the  world.  Is  there 
any  other  book  the  ages  could  absorb  into  their 
veins  as  they  have  the  Bible,  and  feel  nothing  but 
health  as  the  result? 

Mr.  Emerson  told  a  convention  of  rationalists  once, 
in  this  city,  that  the  morality  of  the  New  Testament 
is  scientific  and  perfect.  But  the  morality  of  the 
New  Testament  is  that  of  the  Old.  Yes,  you  say; 
but  what  of  the  imprecatory  Psalms  ?  A  renowned 
professor,  who,  as  Germany  thinks,  has  done  more  for 
New-England  theology  than  any  man  since  Jonathan 
Edwards,  was  once  walking  in  this  city  with  a  clergy- 
man of  a  radical  faith,  who  objected  to  the  doctrine 
that  the  Bible  is  inspired,  and  did  so  on  the  grovmd 
of  the  imprecatory  Psalms.  The  replies  of  the  usual 
kind  were  made ;  and  it  was  presumed  that  David 


THEODORE   PARKER'S   ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.      77 

expressed  the  Divine  purpose  in  praying  that  his 
enemies  might  be  destroyed,  and  that  he  gave  utter- 
ance only  to  the  natural  righteous  indignation  of 
conscience  against  unspeakable  iniquity.  But  the 
doubter  would  not  be  satisfied.  The  two  came  at 
last  to  a  newspaper  bulletin,  on  which  the  words 
were  written,  —  the  time  was  at  the  opening  of  our 
civil  war,  —  "Baltimore  to  be  shelled  at  twelve 
o'clock."  "  I  am  glad  of  it,"  said  the  radical  preach- 
er; "I  am  glad  of  it."  —  "And  so  am  I,"  said  his 
companion ;  "  but  I  hardly  dare  say  so,  for  fear  j^ou 
will  say  I  am  uttering  an  imprecatory  psalm."  [Ap- 
plause.] 

One  proof  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  is  its 
perfect  moral  winnowedness;  and  there  are  a  thou- 
sand other  proofs.  Inspiration  must  at  least  guaran- 
tee winnowedness  ;  and  I  find  no  modern  inspiration 
that  guarantees  even  as  little  as  that.  I  am  not 
giving  the  proof  of  inspiration,  but  only  illustrating 
the  distinction  between  inspiration  and  illuynination. 

Why,  our  literati  will  probably  bow  down  before 
Shakspeare  as  an  inspired  man,  if  that  phrase  is  to 
be  taken  in  the  loose,  misleading  sense  in  Avhich 
Parker  used  it.  How  often  otherwise  brilliant  litera- 
ture tells  us  that  inspiration  is  of  the  same  kind  in 
all  writers,  sacred  and  profane,  differing  only  in 
degree !  Very  well :  if  any  modern  man  has  been 
inspired,  perhaps  Shakspeare  was.  But  is  there 
moral  winnowedness  in  his  writings?  Shakspeare's 
father  was  a  high  bailiff  of  Stratford-on-Avon.  John 
Shakspeare,  alderman,  high  bailiff,  and  justice  of  the 


78  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

peace,  the  worshipful,  —  these  were  Shakspeare's 
father's  titles ;  and  it  was  his  business  to  execute  the 
laws.  But  in  1552  he  was  fined  for  the  unsavory 
offence  of  allowing  a  heap  of  refuse  to  accumulate  in 
front  of  his  own  door.  The  next  year  he  repeated 
this  violation  of  law  (White's  Sliakspeare,  vol.  i.  p. 
15).  The  son  afterwards  exhibited  by  fits  much  of 
the  father's  mind.  [Applause.]  I  never  read  certain 
passages  in  Shakspeare  without  thinking  of  that 
experience  of  the  high  bailiff  on  Henley  Street,  in 
Stratford.  Nevertheless,  although  Shakspeare's  mir- 
ror is  so  wide  that  it  takes  into  its  lower  ranges  the 
gutter  and  the  feather-heads,  it  takes  in,  also,  in  its 
upper  ranges,  eternity  itself.  [Applause.]  This  great 
soul  held  the  mirror  up,  not  merely  to  time,  but,  in 
some  sense,  to  the  Unseen  Holy.  I  reverence  him 
fathomlessly,  but  not  as  a  winnowed  writer.  "  He 
never  blotted  a  line,"  said  Ben  Jonson.  "Would  he 
had  blotted  a  thousand !  " 

There  is  no  winnowed  writer  outside  of  the  Bible. 
You  cannot  put  together  out  of  the  world  a  dozen, 
or  six,  to  say  nothing  of  sixty-six  pamphlets,  that 
shall  contain,  as  the  sixty-six  in  the  Bible  do,  an 
harmonious  system  of  religious  truth,  and  no  morally 
adulterate  element.  Where  are  there  six  volumes 
that  could  be  stitched  together,  even  from  among 
those  that  Christianity  has  inspired,  of  which  we  can 
say  they  possess  this  lowest,  and  by  no  means  ex- 
liaustive  trait  of  true  inspiration,  —  perfect  moral 
and  religious  winnowedness?  The  difference  between 
illumination  and  inspiration  is  as  vast  as  that  between 


THEODORE  PABKER's   ABSOLUTE  RELIGION.      79 

the  east  and  west.  Long  enough  we  have  heard, 
here  in  Boston,  that  all  men  are  inspired  more  or 
less ;  and  long  enough  have  we  learned  that  the  con- 
fusion of  inspiration  and  illumination  with  each 
other  may  work  endless  mischief,  even  when  a  man 
as  honest  as  Theodore  Parker  endeavors  to  build  up, 
after  confusing  them,  a  system  of  faith. 

It  is  not  unimportant  to  notice  that  our  faith  in 
inspiration,  rightly  defined,  would  not  be  touched 
at  all,  even  if  we  were  to  prove  a  geological  error 
in  every  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  I 
do  not  believe  there  is  any  geological  error  there. 
With  Dana,  with  Guyot,  with  Pierce,  with  Dawson, 
we  can  hold  that  the  record  of  the  progress  of  events 
in  the  creation  of  the  world  is  correct.  If  this  is 
correct,  it  must  have  been  inspired ;  for,  unless  it 
was  taught  to  him  from  above,  no  man  could  have 
known  the^  complex  order  accurately  of  events  that 
occurred  before  man  was.  Dana  says,  in  his  last 
chapter  of  his  Geology,  "  This  docuynent  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis^  if  true,  is  of  divine  origin.  It  is 
profoundly  philosophical  in  the  scheme  of  creation 
it  presents.  It  is  both  true  and  divine.  It  is  a 
declaration  of  authorship,  both  of  creation  and  the 
Bible"  {Geology,  pp.  767,  770).  Read  Thomas 
Hill's  subtly  powerful  articles  just  issued  in  a  book 
on  "The  Natural  Sources  of  Theology,"  and  you 
will  find  this  ex-president  of  Harvard  University, 
together  with  Professor  Pierce,  holding  similar  views. 
The  biblical  record  states  that  light  was  created 
before  the  sun,  —  a  most  searching  proof  of  inspii-a- 


80  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tion ;  for  we  know  now  that  the  first  shiver  of  the 
molecular  atoms  must  have  produced  light ;  and  the 
sun,  according  to  the  nebular  hypothesis,  must  liave 
come  into  existence  long  afterwards.  But  what  if 
merely  geological  or  botanical  error,  touching  no 
religious  truth,  were  found  in  the  Bible,  we  should 
yet  hold,  that,  in  the  first  leaves  of  the  Scriptures, 
we  have  most  unspeakably  important  religious  truth. 
They  teach  the  spiritual  origin  of  creation ;  they 
teach  that  man  had  a  personal  Creator ;  they  show, 
that  in  the  beginning,  God,  an  individual  Will, 
brought  into  existence  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
I  do  not  admit  that  scientific  error  has  been  proved 
against  the  Bible  anywhere ;  but  if  an  error  in 
merely  physical  science,  touching  no  religious  truth, 
were  proved,  inspiration  would  yet  stand  unharmed. 
Parker's  trouble  with  the  Bible  arose  largely  from 
his  carelessness  in  definitions.  Confusing  intuition 
and  instinct,  and  inspiration  and  illumination,  he 
made  almost  as  great  mistakes  as  when  he  confused 
the  supernatural  with  the  unnatural. 

Call  up,  gentlemen,  that  day  when  Theodore  Par- 
ker left  New  York,  and  put  in  his  Bible  an  Italian 
violet  opposite  the  words,  "  I  will  be  with  thee  in 
the  great  waters."  I  stood  alone  at  Florence,  at  the 
side  of  the  grave  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  and 
looked  on  the  grave  of  Theodore  Parker.  The 
sturdy  Apennines  gazed  on  the  soft  flow  of  the  Arno  ; 
melodious  murmurs  whispered  through  the  fatness  of 
the  olive-branches ;  there  fell  in  deluges  out  of  the 
unspeakable  azure  in  the  Italian  sky  the  light  of  the 


THEODORE  PARKER'S    ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.      81 

sun  and  of  the  sun  behind  the  sun.  I  remembered 
the  culture  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  and  her 
faith.  I  could  not  forsfet  how  wide  was  her  outlook 
upon  the  inner  world  as  well  as  upon  the  outer, 
how  subtle  beyond  comment  her  instincts  and  intu- 
itions; and  in  my  solitude  I  asked  myself,  which 
faith — hers,  or  his — was  likely  to  be  of  most  service 
to  the  world  in  the  swirling  tides  of  history,  and 
which  the  best  support  to  individual  souls  in  the 
great  waters  on  which  we  pass  hence.  I  remembered 
tenderly  the  good  there  was  in  this  man  and  in  this 
woman ;  but  I  asked  which  had  the  better  faith  for 
service  in  great  waters.  Both  loved  the  poor  ;  there 
was  in  each  one  of  these  souls  at  birth  a  spark  out 
of  the  empyrean ;  and,  under  that  Italian  azure,  I 
asked  which  faith  had  been  the  most  efficient  in 
fanning  that  spark  to  flame.  It  seemed  to  me,  at 
the  side  of  those  graves  in  Italy,  that  Elizabeth  Bar- 
rett Browning,  had  she  stood  there  alive,  would  have 
had  eyes  before  which  those  of  Theodore  Parker 
would  have  fallen,  to  rise  again  only  when  possessed 
of  her  deeper  vision.  Strike  out  of  existence  that 
teaching  which  has  come  to  us  through  the  God 
in  Christ,  whom  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  wor- 
shipped, but  whom  Theodore  Parker  held  to  be  a 
myth,  or  merely  a  man ;  strike  out  of  existence  that 
healing  which  is  offered  to  the  race  in  an  ineffable 
Atonement,  which  in  the  solitudes  of  conscience  may 
be  scientifically  known  to  be  the  desire  of  all  nations ; 
strike  out  of  existence  these  truths, — and  then,  if  the 
moral  law  which   Parker  glorified   none  too   much 


82 


TRANSCENDE1S]"TALTSM. 


continues  its  demands,  you  will  have  stricken  out 
the  solution  of  life's  greatest  enigma.  Great  is  the 
law,  said  Theodore  Parker.  Yes,'  I  know  it  is  great, 
said  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning ;  I  know  that  the  law 
is  spiritual ;  it  is  glorious ;  all  you  say  of  it,  I  affirm 
with  deeper  emphasis  :  but  I  am  carnal ;  I  am  not  at 
peace  before  that  law :  who  shall  deliver  me  ?  Faith- 
fulness to  all  the  intuitions  would  have  brought  that 
man,  as  it  brought  this  woman,  to  this  supreme  ques- 
tion, the  resounding  shore  of  our  mightiest  inner  sea ; 
and  it  would  have  given  assured  safety  there  in  the 
last  day  for  your  reformer  who  disbelieved,  as  for 
your  poetess  who  believed;  and  the  safety  would 
have  been  in  this  only  possible  answer :  "  I  will  be 
with  thee  in  the  great  waters."     [Applause.] 


IV. 

CARICATURED  DEFINITIONS  IN  RELIGIOUS 

SCIENCE. 

THE    SIXTY-SECOND    LECTURE    IN    THE    BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE  JAN.   22. 


"In  natural  philosophy  there  was  no  less  sophistry,  no  less 
dispute  and  uncertainty,  than  in  other  sciences,  until,  about  a 
century  and  a  half  ago,  this  science  began  to  be  built  upon  the 
foundation  of  clear  definitions  and  self-evident  axioms.  Since  that 
time,  the  science,  as  if  watered  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  hath  grown 
apace:  disputes  have  ceased,  truth  hath  prevailed,  and  the  science 
hath  received  greater  increase  in  two  centuries  than  in  two  thousand 
years  before."  —  Reid:  Collected  Writings,  vol.  i.  p.  219. 

"It  is  well  said  by  the  old  logicians,  Omnis  intuitiva  notitia  est 
definitio;  that  is,  a  view  of  the  thing  itself  is  its  best  definition. 
This  is  true  both  of  the  objects  of  sense  and  of  the  objects  of  self- 
consciousness."  —  Sib  William  Haihilton. 


IV. 


CARICATURED     DEFINITIONS     IN     RELI- 
GIOUS SCIENCE. 

PRELUDE  OX   CURRENT   EVENTS. 

If  Belgium  or  Holland  had  two  kings,  we  should 
loftily  look  down  on  those  European  states  as  illus- 
trations of  the  effeteness  of  monarchical  government. 
But  South  Carolina  is  twice  as  large  as  Belgium,  and 
Louisiana  three  times  as  large  as  Holland,  and  each 
of  these  States  has  two  legislatures  elected  in  our 
centennial  year.  Nevertheless,  face  to  face  with  our 
wide  areas  of  Mexicanized  politics,  we  loftily  foster 
our  pride,  or  lightly  excuse  ourselves  from  political 
duties,  as  if  after  us  were  to  come  the  deluge. 
Something  of  a  deluge,  one  would  think,  has  already 
swept  over  us  in  a  civil  war;  but  it  fell  out  of  a 
cloud  that  was  once  thought  to  be  not  larger  than  a 
man's  hand.  A  murky  threat  in  it,  indeed ;  but  when 
that  cloud  had  overspread  all  our  national  horizon, 
when  its  leagued  massive  thunders  filled  all  our 
azure,  when  its  forked  zig-zag  threats  blazed  above 
all  business  and  bosoms,  the  best  of  us  were  yet 
doubtful  whether  there  was  to  be  much  of  a  shower. 

80 


86  TEANSCENDENTALTSM. 

The  most  popular  orator  of  this  nation  I  heard 
address  a  collegiate  audience  three  days  before 
Sumter  fell ;  and,  walking  to  the  edge  of  the  plat- 
form, he  asked,  "  What  is  going  to  happen  ?  "  and 
then  whispered,  with  his  hand  above  his  lips,  "  Just 
nothing  at  all." 

Perhaps  it  is  worth  while  to  look  a  little  at  the 
murk}^  threat  of  Mexicanization  in  portions  of  our 
politics  ;  for  who  knows  whether  we  are  to  be  saved 
from  all  our  difficulties  by  an  ex  post  facto  electoral 
law  ?  Will  troubles  never  come  again  ?  What  if  a 
presidential  election  as  close  as  the  last  had  taken 
place  in  the  midst  of  our  civil  war  ?  Will  indecisive 
contests  for  political  primacy  in  a  territory  greater 
than  Caesar  governed  never  again  tempt  the  gigantic 
contestants  to  fraud  ?  Will  colossal  partisan  spoils 
and  political  corruption  soon  cease  to  stand  in  the 
relation  of  cause  and  effect?  Our  fathers  studied 
British  precedents  to  avoid  British  dangers ;  but  is  it 
not  high  time  to  begin  to  study  American  precedents 
in  order  to  avoid  American  dangers  ?  Are  we  now 
seeking  to  throttle  the  real  causes  of  our  civil  dis- 
tresses, or  dealing  only  with  a  few  of  their  effects  ? 
How  long  is  intimidation  to  last  on  the  Gulf?  How 
long  will  the  ignorant  ballot  be  a  threatening  politi- 
cal fact  in  the  slums  of  Northern  cities  ? 

Massachusetts,  you  say,  is  very  highly  cultured, 
and  is  outgrowing  the  evils  that  attend  on  the  youth 
of  republics.  Are  you  sure,  that,  when  the  popula- 
tion of  Massachusetts  is  as  dense  as  that  of  England, 
your   Massachusetts    laws   will    make    every   thing 


CARICATURED   DEFINITIONS.  87 

smooth  here  ?  Has  this  Commonwealth  a  right  to  be 
proud  of  its  exemption  from  illiteracy?  There  are 
here  a  million,  six  hundred  thousand  people,  and  a 
hundred  thousand  of  them  are  illiterates.  Of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  citizens  in  Massachusetts  above  ten 
years  of  age,  and  of  seventy-seven  thousand  above 
twenty-one,  it  is  true  either  that  they  cannot  read  or 
that  they  cannot  write. 

The  daj's  that  are  passing  over  us  are  serious  in 
th,e  last  degree,  because  it  is  very  evident  that  our 
present  difficulties  —  with  the  ignorant  ballot,  and 
with  intimidation  and  trickery  in  close  elections,  and 
with  tlie  atrocious  rule  that  to  political  victors  belong 
all  political  spoils  —  will  grow.  Certainly  the  perils 
arising  from  the  ignorant  ballot,  and  from  greed  and 
fraud  in  contests  for  spoils  greater  than  Csesar, 
Antony,  and  Lepidus  fought  for,  will  enlarge  as  cities 
grow  more  numerous  and  populous,  and  as  political 
party  patronage  becomes  fatter  and  vaster. 

We  may  escape  from  intimidation  at  last,  but  not 
in  your  generation  or  mine.  There  will  be,  while  we 
are  in  the  world,  whole  ranges  of  States,  in  which  it 
will  be  at  times  hardly  safe  to  vote  against  the  will 
of  the  governing  class,  and  where  a  perfectly  free 
election  will  be  the  exception,  and  not  the  rule. 

Lord  Macaulay,  you  know,  in  letters  lately  pub- 
lished, though  written  in  1858,  predicted,  that,  when- 
ever we  have  a  population  of  two  hundred  to  the. 
square  mile,  the  Jeffersonian  and  Jacksonian  parts  of 
our  civil  polity  will  produce  fatal  effects.  You  say 
Macaulay  is  unduly  full  of  tremor  as  to  the  future 


88  .  TKANSCENDENTALTSM. 

of  republican  institutions,  and  that  France  frightened 
him  too  much  with  her  revolution  ;  but  he  is  exceed- 
ingly cautious.  Europe  has  only  eighty  inhabitants 
to  the  square  mUe ;  and  this  historian  says,  that,  when 
we  have  two  hundred  to  the  square  mile,  we  shall  be 
obliged  to  manage  our  politics  on  some  other  plan 
than  that  which  supposes  that  all  problems  can  be 
settled  "by  a  majority  of  the  citizens  told  by  the 
head ;  that  is  to  say,  by  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant 
part  of  society." 

What  do  I  want  ?  Am  I  here  to  make  a  plea  for 
aristocratic  institutions?  Massachusetts  has  a  read- 
ing-test :  New  York  has  not.  It  was  my  fortune,  or 
misfortune,  to  be  born  in  the  Empire  State,  and  it  is 
a  grievous  thing  to  me  to  know  that  that  vast  com- 
monwealth, which,  above  and  west  of  the  Highlands 
of  the  Hudson,  is  only  a  prolongation  of  New  Eng- 
land, is  politically  under  the  heels  of  New  York, 
below  the  Highlands,  and  would  not  be  if  the  read- 
ing-test, which  my .  State  used  to  have,  had  been 
retained  in  the  popular  suffrage.  In  1821  our  State 
constitution  was  revised  in  New  York ;  and  Martin 
Van  Buren,  when  the  reading-test  was  stricken  out, 
predicted  precisely  the  metropolitan  evils  which  have 
arisen  from  the  ignorant  ballot  in  New-York  City. 
Eighteen  or  twenty  thousand  votes  in  ever}'-  munici- 
pal election  in  New  York  cannot  read  or  write ;  and 
they  are  a  make-weight  sufficient,  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  astute  and  unscrupulous  men,  to  determine  the 
result  of  any  ordinary  political  contest  in  that  city. 

Drop  out  her  twenty   thousand  ignorant   ballots, 


CARICATURED   DEI'INITIONS.  89 

and  New- York  City,  politicians  say,  could,  with  no 
great  difficulty,  be  restored  to  the  control  of  her 
industrious  and  intelligent  classes.  If  New  York 
were  London,  and  if  her  ignorant  ballot  were  large 
in  proportion  to  her  size,  not  merely  New-York 
State,  but,  I  fear.  New  England,  would  be  under  the 
heels  of  the  lower  half  of  New- York  City. 

"VYliat  are  we  to  do  about  these  things  ?  Civil-ser- 
vice reform  is  up  for  discussion  from  sea  to  sea; 
and  why  should  not  President  Grant's  repeated  offi- 
cial words  on  the  ballot  be  also  up  in  this  serious 
time  for  public  thought  ?  In  tliis  distinguished  audi- 
ence it  cannot  have  escaped  attention  that  his  recom- 
mendation of  the  reading-test  in  the  national  vote 
has  escaped  attention.  President  Grant  would  take 
the  ballot  from  nobody  who  has  it  now.  He  would 
let  all  men  who  have  received  the  right  to  vote  hold 
that  right.  But  he  would  open  the  school  doors ;  he 
would  cause  a  common  school  education  to  be  free  as 
the  air;  he  would  make  it  as  compulsory  as  the 
summer  wind  is  upon  the  locks  of  the  bo}',  trudging 
his  way  to  the  recitations  of  the  morning ;  he  would 
remove  every  obstacle  to  the  acquisition  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  reading  and  writing ;  and  then,  after,  say,  the 
year  1890,  he  would  refuse  the  ballot  to  everybody 
who  has  not  learned  to  read  and  write.  [Applause.] 
I  am  glad  that  Boston  does  not  let  this  presidential 
recommendation  sleep. 

We  must  be  more  thoughtful  of  what  is  to  come 
in  America,  or  much  will  come  of  which  we  do  not 
think.     Which  is  the  more  worthy  of  the  culture  of 


90  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

a  scholar  in  politics,  —  to  throttle  evils  before,  or  only 
after,  they  themselves  throttle  us? 

Theodore  Parker  was  a  pastor  in  Boston,  and  he 
writes  in  his  journal  one  day,  concerning  William 
Craft,  the  fugitive  slave :  "  I  inspected  his  arms,  —  a 
good  revolver  with  six  caps  on,  a  large  pistol,  two 
small  ones,  a  large  dirk  and  a  short  one :  all  was 
right."  That  was  efficient  pastoral  inspection  of  a 
parish.  Yonder,  on  the  slope  of  Beacon  Hill,  Theo- 
dore Parker  performed  the  rites  of  marriage  for 
William  and  Ellen  Craft,  two  cultured  colored 
people  belonging  to  the  society  of  which  he  had 
charge.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony  he  put  a 
Bible  into  the  left  hand  of  the  hunted  black  man ; 
and,  as  some  one  had  laid  a  bowie-knife  on  the  table, 
an  inspiration  of  the  moment  caused  Theodore  Par- 
ker to  put  that  weapon  into  the  man's  right  hand. 
He  then  said  to  the  escaped  slave,  "  If  you  cannot 
use  this  without  hating  the  man  you  strike  against, 
your  action  will  not  be  without  sin;  but  to  defend 
the  honor  of  your  wife,  to  defend  your  own  life,  and 
to  save  her  and  yourself  from  bondage,  you  have  a 
right  to  use  the  Bible  in  your  left  hand  and  the 
bowie-knife  in  your  right."  Say,  if  you  please,  that 
all  that  was  melodramatic ;  say,  if  you  will,  that  this 
style  of  action  was  Parker's  first,  and  not  his  second 
or  his  third  thought.  I  affirm,  that,  in  the  little 
cloud  which  we  thought  had  in  it  no  deluge,  he  fore- 
saw civil  war ;  and  that,  if  pastors  all  through  the 
North  had  been  equally  efficient,  there  would  have 
been  no  bloody  rain  at  Gettysbiu'g.     [Applause.] 


CAEICATURED   DEFINITIOXS.  91 


THE   LECTURE. 

"Wlien  Daniel  Webster  was  asked  how  he  ob- 
tained his  clear  ideas,  he  replied,  "  By  attention  to 
definitions."  Dr.  Johnson,  whose  business  it  was  to 
explain  words,  was  once  riding  on  a  rural  road  in 
Scotland,  and,  as  he  paused  to  water  his  horse  at  a 
wayside  spring,  he  was  requested  by  a  woman  of  ad- 
vanced age  to  tell  her  how  he,  the  great  Dr.  Johnson, 
author  of  a  renowned  dictionary,  could  possibly  have 
defined  the  word  "pastern"  "the  knee  of  a  horse." 
"Ignorance,  madam,"  was  the  reply, —  "pure  igno- 
rance." For  one,  if  I  am  forced  to  make  a  confession 
as  to  my  personal  difficulties  with  Orthodoxy  of  the 
scholarly  type,  I  must  use,  as  perhaps  many  another 
student  might,  both  Webster's  and  Johnson's  phrases 
as  the  outlines  of  the  story.  Before  I  attended  to 
definitions,  I  had  difficulties :  after  I  attended  to 
them  in  the  spirit  of  the  scientific  method,  my  own 
serious  account  to  myself  of  the  origin  of  my  per- 
plexities was,  in  most  cases,  given  in  Johnson's  words, 
"Ignorance,  pure  ignorance." 

Theodore  Parker's  chief  intellectual  fault  was 
inadequate  attention  to  definitions.  As  a  conse- 
quence, his  caricatures  or  misconceptions  of  Chris- 
tian truth  were  many  and  ghastly.  I  cannot  discuss 
them  all ;  but  in  addition  to  his  failure  to  distinguish 
between  intuition  and  instinct^  and  between  inspira- 
tion and  illumination^  it  must  be  said,  in  continuance 
of  the  list  of  his  chief  errors  :  — 

5.  He  did  not  carefully  distinguish  from  each  other 
inspiration  and  dictation. 


92  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

"When  Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  young  man,  one 
of  his  hungriest  desires  was  to  acquire  a  perfect 
style  of  Avriting;  and,  as  he  admired  Addison  more 
than  any  other  author,  he  was  accustomed  to  take  an 
essay  of  the  "  Spectator,"  and  make  very  full  notes  of 
all  its  thoughts,  images,  sentiments,  and  of  some  few 
of  the  phrases.  He  then  would  place  his  manuscript 
in  his  drawer,  wait  several  weeks,  or  until  he  had 
forgotten  the  language  of  the  original,  and  then 
would  take  his  memoranda,  and  write  out  an  essay 
including  every  idea,  every  pulse  of  emotion,  every 
flash  of  imagination,  that  he  had  transferred  from 
Addison  to  his  notes.  Then  he  would  compare  his 
work  with  the  original,  and  humiliate  himself  by  the 
contrast  of  his  own  uncouth  rhetorical  garment  with 
Addison's  perfect  robe  of  flowing  silk.  He  studied 
how  to  improve  his  crabbed,  cold,  or  obscure  phrases 
by  the  light  of  Addison's  noon  of  luminousness  and 
imaginative  and  moral  heat.  Now,  Franklin's  essay 
was,  you  would  say  in  such  a  case,  not  dictated  by 
Addison,  but  was  inspired  by  Addison. 

Plainly  there  is  a  difference  between  inspiration 
and  dictation.  Orthodoxy  believes  the  Bible  to  be 
inspired ;  and  her  definition  of  inspiration  is  the 
gift  of  infallibility  in  teaching  moral  and  religious 
truth.  But,  by  inspiration  thus  defined,  Orthodoxy 
does  not  mean  dictation.  She  means  that  the  Bible 
is  as  full  of  God  as  Franklin's  echoed  essay  was  of 
Addison.  As  in  his  essay  there  were  both  an  Addi- 
sonian and  a  Franklinian  element,  so,  speaking 
roundl}^  there  are  in  the  Bible  a  divine  and  a  human 


CARICATUEED   DEFINITIONS.  93 

element ;  but  the  latter  is  swallowed  up  in  the  for- 
mer even  more  completely  than  the  Franklinian  was 
in  the  Addisonian.  All  the  thought  in  Franklin's 
essay  is,  by  supposition,  Addison's,  and  some  of  the 
phrases  are  liis  ;  but  Franldin's  words  are  there.  All 
the  moral  and  religious  thought  of  the  Bible  is,  ac- 
cording to  the  definition  of  inspiration,  divine,  and 
so  are  some  of  the  phrases ;  but  human  words  are 
there. 

The  chief  proof,  after  all,  that  the  Bible  is  good 
food,  is  the  eating  of  it.  The  healing  efficacy  of  a 
medicine  when  it  is  used  is  the  demonstration  that  it 
is  good.  Now,  the  world  has  been  eating  the  Bible  as 
it  never  ate  any  other  book,  and  the  Bible  has  been 
saturating  the  veins  of  the  ages  as  they  were  never 
saturated  by  the  food  derived  from  any  other  volume ; 
but  there  is  no  spiritual  disease  that  you  can  point 
to  that  is  the  outcome  of  biblical  inculcation.  We 
all  feel  sure  that  it  would  be  better  than  well  for  the 
world,  if  all  the  precepts  of  this  volume  were  ab- 
sorbed and  transmuted  into  the  actions  of  men.  The 
astounding  fact  is,  that  the  Bible  is  the  only  hook  in  the 
world  that  toill  hear  full  and  permanent  translation  into 
life.  The  careless  and  superficial  sometimes  do  not 
distinguish  from  each  other  the  biblical  record  and  the 
biblical  inculcation.  I  know  that  fearful  things  are 
recorded  in  the  Bible  concerning  men,  who,  in  some 
respects,werc  approved  of  God ;  but  it  is  the  biblical 
inculcation  which  I  pronounce  free  from  adulterate 
elements,  not  the  biblical  record.  Of  course,  in  a 
mirror  held  up  before  the  human  heart,  there  will  be 


94  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

reflected  blotches ;  but  the  inculcation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  sixty-six 
pamphlets,  is  known  by  experience  to  be  free  from 
adulterate  elements ;  and  I  defy  the  "vvorld  to  show 
any  disease  that  ever  has  come  from  the  absorption 
into  the  veins  of  the  ages  of  the  biblical  inculcation. 
[Applause.]  And,  moreover,  I  defy  the  ages  to  show 
any  other  book  that  could  be  absorbed  thus  in  its 
inculcations,  and  not  produce  dizziness  of  the  head, 
pimples  on  the  skin,  staggering  at  last,  and  the  sow- 
ing of  dragon's  teeth.     [Applause.] 

There  is  something  very  peculiar  about  this  one 
book,  in  the  incontrovertible  fact  that  its  inculca- 
tions are  preserved  from  such  error  as  would  work 
out,  in  experience,  moral  disease  in  the  world.  Plato 
taught  such  doctrines,  that  if  the  world  had  followed 
him  as  it  has  the  Bible,  and  had  absorbed  not  his 
account  of  men's  vices,  but  his  positive  inculcation, 
we  to-day  should  be  living  in  barracks,  and  we  could 
not  know  who  are  our  brothers,  and  who  are  our 
sisters.  (Geote's  Plato^  TJie  B-cpuhlic^  "  Social 
Laws.")  There  was  in  Plato,  you  say,  inspiration. 
Very  well.  His  inculcation  under  what  you  call 
inspiration,  and  I  call  illumination,  would,  as  every 
scholar  knows,  have  turned  this  fat  world  into  a 
pasture-ground  for  the  intellectual  and  powerful  on 
the  one  side  ;  but  the  poor  on  the  other  side  it  would 
have  ground  down  into  the  position  of  unaspiring 
and  hopeless  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  ; 
and,  worse  than  that,  it  would  have  quenched  the 
divincst  spark  in  natural  religion,  —  family  life. 
[Applause.] 


CABTCATT7RED  DEFIKTTIONS.  95 

Dictation  and  plenary  inspiration  are  not  the 
same.  I  avoid  technical  terms  here  ;  but  you  must 
allow  me,  since  Theodore  Parker  so  often  spoke 
against  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  to  say, 
that,  by  plenary  inspiration.  Orthodoxy  does  not 
mean  verbal  inspiration.  Franklin's  essay  was  plen- 
arily,  but  not  always  verbally,  inspired  by  Addison. 
If  the  Bible  is  written  by  dictation  or  verbal  inspira- 
tion, as  Theodore  Parker  often  taught  that  Orthodox 
scholarship  supposes  that  it  is,  even  then  it  would 
not  be  at  all  clear  that  any  translation  of  the  Bible 
is  verbally  inspired.  If  any  thing  was  dictated,  of 
course,  only  the  original  was  dictated. 

In  places  I  believe  we  have  in  the  Bible  absolute 
dictation  ;  and  yet  inspiration  and  dictation  are  two 
things ;  and  the  difference  between  them  is  worth 
pointing  out  when  Orthodoxy  is  held  responsible  for 
a  caricature  of  her  definition,  and  when  men  are 
thrown  into  unrest  on  this  point,  as  if  they  were  called 
on  to  believe  self-contradiction.  The  fact  that  all 
portions  of  the  Bible  are  inspired  does  not  imply  at 
all  that  King  James's  version,  or  the  German,  or  the 
French,  or  the  Hindostanee,  or  any  other,  is  dictated 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Even  these  versions,  however, 
are  full  of  God,  as  Franklin's  essay  was  of  Addison, 
and  fuller.  They.,  too.,  ivill  hear  translation  into  life. 
Sometimes,  as  in  the  Decalogue  and  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  and  in  transfigured  Psalm  and  prophecy, 
it  well  may  be  that  we  have  in  the  original,  words 
wliicli  came  not  by  the  will  of  man. 

There  are  tliree  degrees  of  inspiration  ;  and  the 


96  TEANSCENDEXTALISM. 

distinctions  between  them  are  not  manufactured  by 
me,  here  and  now,  to  meet  the  exigency  of  this  dis- 
cussion :  they  are  as  old  as  John  Locke.  It  is 
commonplace  in  religious  science  to  speak  of  the 
inspiration  of  superintendence,  as  in  Acts  or  Chroni- 
cles ;  the  inspiration  of  elevation,  as  in  the  Psalms ; 
and  the  inspiration  of  suggestion,  as  in  the  Prophe- 
cies. The  historical  books  of  the  Scriptures  have 
been  so  superintended,  that  they  are  winnowed  com- 
pletely of  error  in  moral  inculcation.  But  the 
inspiration  of  superintendence  is  the  lowest  degree 
of  inspiration.  We  come  to  the  great  Psalms,  which 
assuredly  have  no  equals  in  literature,  and  which  are 
palpably  rained  out  of  a  higher  sky  than  unassisted 
human  genius  has  dropped  its  productions  from. 
These  Psalms,  we  say,  are  examples  of  the  inspiration 
of  elevation.  But  we  have  a  yet  higher  range  of  the 
action  of  inspiration  in  passages  like  the  distinct 
predictions  that  the  Jews  should  be  scattered  among 
all  nations,  and  nevertheless  preserved  as  a  separate 
people,  as  they  have  been  ;  or  that  Jerusalem  should 
be  destroyed,  as  it  was  ;  or  that  there  should  come  a 
supreme  Teacher  of  the  race,  as  he  has  come.  We 
find  in  the  biblical  record  unmistakably  prophetic 
passages,  and  these  are  seals  of  the  inspiration  of 
suggestion  ;  for  they  could  have  been  written  only 
by  suggestion.  Infidelity  never  yet  has  made  it 
clear  that  the  Old-Testament  predictions  concerning 
the  Jews  have  not  been  fulfilled.  Rationalism,  iu 
Germany,  whenever  it  takes  up  that  topic,  drops  it 
like   hot  iron.     "  What  is  a  short  proof  of  inspira- 


CAEICATUEED   DEFIXITIOXS.  97 

tion  ? "  said  Frederic  the  Great  to  his  chaplain. 
"  The  Jews,  your  majestj^"  was  the  answer.  If  there 
be  in  the  Bible  a  single  passage  that  is  plainly- 
prophetic,  there  is  in  that  passage  a  very  peculiar 
proof  of  its  own  divine  origin.  We  have  our  Lord 
pointing  out  the  prophecies  concerning  himself,  and 
he  makes  it  a  reason  why  we  should  turn  to  the  Old 
Testament,  that  they  are  they  which  testify  of  him. 
Now,  if  there  be  some  passages  of  the  Bible  that 
contain  these  prophetic  announcements,  then  the 
Teacher  thus  announced  is  divinely  attested,  and  we 
are  to  listen  to  him. 

If,  however,  we  stand  simply  on  the  amazing  fact 
of  the  moral  and  religious  winnowedness  of  Scrip- 
ture, we  have  also  a  divine  attestation.  That  win- 
nowedness is  providential.  What  God  does  he 
means  to  do.  He  has  done  this  for  the  Bible, — he 
has  kept  it  free  from  moral  and  religious  error  in  its 
inculcations.  He  has  done  that  for  no  other  book ; 
and  what  he  has  done  he  from  the  first  intended  to 
do.  Therefore  the  very  fact  of  the  winnowedness 
of  the  Bible  is  proof  of  a  divine  superintendence 
over  it. 

Superintendence,  elevation,  suggestion,  are  differ- 
ent degrees  of  inspiration,  which  is  of  one  kind. 
But  inspiration  and  illumination,  according  to  estab- 
lished definitions,  differ  in  kind,  and  not  merely  in 
degree ;  for  inspiration,  as  a  term  in  religious  science, 
—  I  am  not  talking  of  popular  literature,  —  always 
carries  with  it  the  idea  of  winnowedness  as  to  moral 
and  religious  truth. 


98  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

Tliere  is  nothing  in  the  intuitive  ranges  of  truth 
that  comes  into  collision  tvith  biblical  inculcation ;  but 
there  is  no  other  sacred  booh  on  the  globe  which  those 
same  ranges  of  axiomatic  moral  truth  do  not  pierce 
through  and  through  and  through  in  more  places  than 
ever  knight's  sword  toent  through  an  opponent's  shield. 
A  few  brilliants  plucked  out  of  mucli  mire  are  the 
texts  sometimes  cited  to  us  from  the  sacred  literature 
of  India,  China,  Arabia,  Greece,  and  Rome.  I  defy 
those  who  seem  to  be  dazzled  by  these  fragments,  to 
read  before  any  mixed  company  of  cultivated  men 
and  women  the  complete  inculcations  of  the  Vedas, 
Shastas,  and  Koran.  Those  books  have  been  ab- 
sorbed into  the  veins  of  nations ;  and  we  know  what 
diseases  have  been  the  result.  Theg  must  be  tried  by 
the  stern  tests  tvhich  the  Bible  endures;  that  is,  by 
intuition,  instinct,  experiment,  and  syllogism.  All  the 
sacred  literatures  of  the  world  come  into  collision 
with  the  intuitions  of  conscience,  or  with  the  dic- 
tates of  long  experience,  except  that  one  strange 
volume,  coming  from  a  remoter  antiquity  than  any 
other  sacred  book,  and  read  to-day  in  two  hundred 
languages  of  the  globe,  and  kept  so  pure  in  spite  of 
all  the  tempests  of  time  that  have  swept  through 
its  sky,  that  above  the  highest  heavens  opened  to  us 
by  genius,  and  beyond  all  our  latest  and  loftiest 
ideals,  the  biblical  azure  spreads  out  as  noon  risen  on 
mid-noon.     [Applause.] 

6.  Theodore  Parker  was  not  careful  enough  to  dis- 
tinguish between  inspiration  and  revelation. 

By  revelation  I  mean  all  self-manifestation  of  God, 


CAEICATURED  DEFINITIONS.  99 

in  liis  "words  and  his  works  both :  inspiration  is  his 
self-manifestation  in  the  Scriptures  alone.  Allow  mo 
to  assert,  face  to  face  with  the  learning  of  this  audi- 
ence, in  the  presence  of  which  I  speak  with  sincere 
deference,  that  Christianity  would  stand  on  the  basis 
of  revelation,  —  that  is,  on  the  self-manifestation  of 
God  in  his  works,  including  the  facts  of  the  New- 
Testament  history,  —  even  if  the  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion were  all  thrown  to  the  winds.  You  have  been 
taught  too  often  by  rationalism  that  Christianity 
stands  or  falls  on  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  inspi- 
ration, whereas  the  nature  and  the  degree  of  inspira- 
tion aro  questions  between  Christians  themselves. 
Christianity,  as  a  redemptive  system,  might  stand  on 
the  great  facts  of  the  New  Testament,  if  they  were 
known  as  historic  only,  and  the  New-Testament 
literature  were  not  inspired  at  all.  Religion  based 
on  axiomatic  moral  truth  would  stand  on  revelation 
thus  defined,  even  if  inspiration  were  given  up  as  a 
dream.     [Applause.] 

Will  you  remember  that  the  configuration  of  New 
England  is  the  same  at  midnight  and  at  noon  ?  It  is 
my  fortune  to  be  a  flying  scout,  or  a  kind  of  outlook 
committee,  for  my  learned  brethren  here,  and  I  carry 
a  guide-book  to  this  delicious  nook  of  the  round 
world;  but  what  if  I  should  lose  that  volume? 
Would  not  the  IMerrimack  continue  to  be  the  most 
industrious  river  within  your  borders,  the  Connecti- 
cut the  most  majestic,  the  Wliite  Hills  and  the  Green 
^lountains  the  most  stately  of  your  elevations? 
Would  there  bo  any  gleaming  shore  on  your  coast, 


100  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

where  the  Atlantic  surge  plays  through  the  reeds, 
that  would  change  its  outline  at  all  by  day  or  by 
night  because  of  the  loss  of  my  guide-book  ?  Would 
not  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  be  just  the 
same  ?  Inspiration  gives  us  a  guide-book :  it  does  not 
create  the  landscajje.  Our  human  reason,  compared 
with  inspiration,  is  as  starlight  contrasted  with  the 
sunlight ;  but  the  landscape  of  our  relations  to  God 
is  just  the  same  whether  it  be  illumined  or  left  in 
obscurity.  We  might  trace  out  by  starlight  much 
of  the  map.  The  sun  of  inspiration  arises,  and  we 
know  the  Merrimack  and  Connecticut  as  never  be- 
fore ;  but  the  sun  did  not  create  the  Merrimack  or 
the  Connecticut.  On  all  our  shores  the  orb  of  day 
shows  to  the  eye  the  distinction  between  rock  and 
wave  ;  but  it  does  not  create  that  distinction,  which 
we  not  dimly  knew  before  by  the  noises  in  the  dark, 
and  by  the  wrecks. 

There  is  a  soul,  and  there  is  a  God ;  and,  since  law 
is  universal,  there  must  be  conditions  of  harmony 
between  the  soul  and  God.  Since  the  soul  is  made  on 
a  jylan,  there  must  be  natural  conditions  of  its  peace^ 
both  ivith  itself  and  ivith  God;  and  these  conditions 
are  not  altered  by  being  revealed.  [Applause.]  New- 
ton did  not  make  the  law  of  gravitation  by  discover- 
ing it,  did  he  ?  The  Bible  does  not  create,  it  reveals, 
the  nature  of  things.  As  long  as  it  remains  true 
that  there  is  a  best  way  to  live,  it  will  be  best  to 
live  the  best  way ;  and  religion  is  very  evidently 
safe,  whether  the  Bible  stands  or  falls.     [Applause.] 

7.  Theodore  Parker  did  not  carefully  distinguish 


CARICATUEED  DEFINITIONS.  101 

from  each  other  the  supernatural  and  the  unnatu- 
rah 

There  are  three  kinds  of  natural  laws,  —  physical, 
organic,  and  moral.  It  is  very  important  to  distin- 
guish these  three  from  each  other ;  for  penalty  under 
the  one  class  of  laws  does  not  always  carry  with  it 
penalty  under  the  others.  A  pirate  may  enjoy  good 
health,  and  yet  lose  his  desire  to  be  holy,  and  thus 
be  blessed  under  the  organic,  but  cursed  under  the 
moral,  natural  laws.  A  Christian,  if  he  is  thrown 
into  the  sea,  will  sink  in  spite  of  his  being  a  saint ; 
that  is,  he  will  be  condemned  under  the  physical  law 
of  gravitation,  although  blessed  under  the  moral. 
We  are  stupid  creatures;  and  so  we  ask  naturally 
whether  those  on  whom  the  Tower  of  Siloam  fell 
were  sinners  above  all  others.  Were  those  who  per- 
ished in  the  Ashtabula  horror  sinners  above  all 
others?  A  sweet  singer  —  one  whose  words  of  mel- 
ody will,  I  hope,  for  some  centuries  yet,  prolong  his 
usefulness  on  this  and  every  other  continent  —  may 
have  been  rapt  away  to  heaven  in  a  bliss  which  his 
own  best  poems  express  only  as  the  spark  expresses 
the  noon.  But  there  was  somewhere  and  somehow  a 
violation  of  physical  law,  and  the  penalty  was  paid. 
While  that  penalty  was  in  process  of  execution,  the 
bUss  of  obedience  to  the  moral  law  may  have  been 
descending  also  ;  and  thus,  out  of  the  fire  and  the 
ice,  and  the  jaws  of  unimaginable  physical  agony,  this 
man  may  have  been  caught  up  into  eternal  peace. 
[Applause.] 

The  distinction  between  the  physical,  organic,  and 


102  TEAJSrSCENDENTALISM. 

moral  natural  laws,  however,  is  not  as  important  as 
that  between  the  higher  and  the  lower  natural  laws. 
Do  you  not  admit  that  gravitation,  a  physical  law,  is 
lower  than  the  organic  force  that  builds  animal  and 
vegetable  tissues  ?  In  the  growth  of  the  elms  on  the 
Boston  mall  yonder,  is  not  gravitation  seized  upon 
by  some  power  superior  to  itself,  and  is  not  matter 
made  to  act  as  gravitation  does  not  wish  ? 

Is  it  not  a  common  assertion  of  science,  that  chem- 
ical forces  are  counteracted  by  the  organic  forces 
which  build  up  living  tissues  ?  Has  not  my  will 
power  to  counteract  the  law  of  gravitation  ?  A 
higher  may  anywhere  counteract  a  lower  natural  law. 
Scientific  Theism  does  not  admit  that  all  there  is 
of  God  is  in  natural  law.  He  transcends  nature : 
therefore  he  may  reach  down  into  it,  as  I,  with  the 
force  of  my  will,  reach  into  the  law  of  gravitation. 
If  he  counteracts  nature,  his  action  is  supernatural,  but 
it  is  not  unnatural. 

Charles  Darwin  and  your  Archbishop  Butler  say 
that  the  only  clear  meaning  of  the  word  "  natural "  is 
"  stated,  fixed,  regular,"  and  that  "  it  just  as  much  re- 
quires and  presupposes  an  intelligent  agent  to  effect 
any  thing  statedly,  fixedly,  regularly,  that  is,  natu- 
rally, as  it  does  to  effect  it  for  once,  that  is,  supernat- 
urally  "  (Butler's  Analogy,  part  i.  chap,  i.,  cited 
as  a  motto  in  Darwdt's  Origin  of  Species').  Accord- 
ing to  Darwin  and  Butler,  therefore,  a  natural  law 
is  simply  the  usual,  fixed,  regular  method  of  the 
Divine  Action.  A  miracle  is  unusual  Divine  Action. 
hi  the  former  we  see  the  Divine  Immanency  in  Nature  ; 


CARICATURED  DEFINITIONS.  103 

in  the  latter  the  Divine  Transcendency  heyond  it.  In 
fundamental  principle  a  miracle  is  only  the  subjcc 
tion  of  a  lower  to  a  higher  law,  and  therefore,  al- 
though supernatural,  it  is  not  unnatural.  (Art.  on 
"Miracles,"  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary.')  But  Theo- 
dore Parker  taught  that  "  a  miracle  is  as  impossible 
as  a  round  triangle  "  (Weiss's  Life  of  Parker,  vol. 
ii.  p.  452),  because  it  involves  a  self-contradiction. 
Brought  up  in  the  benighted  New-England  and  Ger- 
man schools  called  evangelical,  it  never  entered  my 
head  that  self-contradiction  was  involved  in  the 
supernatural ;  for  I  was  trained  to  think  that  there 
is  a  distinction  between  the  supernatural  and  the 
unnatural. 

Mr.  Furness  of  Philadelphia  says  that  a  marvel- 
lous character,  such  as  our  Lord  was,  must  be  ex- 
pected to  do  marvellous  works.  We  know,  that, 
when  men  are  illumined  by  the  poetic  trance,  they 
have  capacities  that  no  other  mood  gives  them. 
There  are  lofty  zones  in  human  experience,  and, 
when  we  are  in  them,  we  can  do  much  which  we  can 
do  in  none  of  our  lower  zones.  What  if  a  man 
should  appear  filled  with  a  life  that  leaves  him  in 
constant  communication  with  God  ?  What  if  there 
should  come  into  existence  a  sinless  soul  ?  What  if 
it  should  remain  sinless?  What  if  there  should 
appear  in  history  a  being  in  this  sense  above  nature, 
is  it  not  to  be  expected  that  he  will  have  power  over 
nature,  and  perform  works  above  natiire  ?  Endowed 
as  the  Author  of  Christianity  was,  we  should  natu- 
rally expect  from  that  supernatural  endowment 
works  not  unnatural,  but  supernatural.     [Applause.] 


104  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

It  is  Parker's  teacliing  that  said  the  resurrection 
has  "no  evidence  in  its  favor."  De  Wette,  whose 
book  he  translated,  affirmed  in  his  latest  volume,  as 
I  showed  you  the  other  day,  that  the  fact  of  the  res- 
urrection, although  a  mystery  that  cannot  be  dissi- 
pated hangs  over  the  way  and  manner  of  it,  cannot 
be  brought  into  doubt,  any  more  than  the  assassina- 
tion of  Cffisar. 

Theodore  Parker,  in  his  middle  life,  stood  vigor- 
ously for  the  propositions  which  he  reached  at  the 
Divinity  School  at  Cambridge  and  in  West  Roxbury. 
He  was  attacked  too  early.  He  says  himself  that  he 
had  not  completed  his  system  of  thought.  But  he 
was  attacked  vigorously ;  and  with  the  spirit  of  his 
grandfather,  who  led  the  first  charge  on  the  British 
troops,  he  stood  up  and  vehemently  defended  himself. 
[Applause.]  But  that  early  attack  caused  some  of 
his  crudities  to  crystallize  speedily.  He  was  after- 
ward too  much  absorbed  in  vast  philanthropic  enter- 
prises to  be  an  exact  philosopher  in  metaphysics  or 
ethics.  He  never  made  himself  quite  clear  in  these 
sciences,  or  even  in  the  latest  biblical  research.  His 
own  master,  De  Wette,  went  far  beyond  him,  and 
admitted,  in  the  face  of  German  scholarship,  that  the 
resurrection  can  be  proved  to  be  an  historic  certitude. 
Theodore  Parker,  although  De  Wette  did  not  make 
that  admission  till  1849,  lived  ten  years  longer,  and 
never  made  it. 

Attacked  early,  and  defending  his  unformed  opin- 
ions vigorously,  Parker's  scheme  of  thought  crystal- 
lized in  its  crude  condition.     Theodore  Parker's  also- 


CARICATURED   DEFINITIONS.  105 

lute  religion  is  not  a  Boston,  hut  a  West  Roxhury  creed. 
[Applause.]  It  is  the  speculation  of  a  very  young- 
man,  besides. 

8.  Theodore  Parker  seemed  to  understand  little 
of  the  distinction  between  belief  and  faith. 

He  never  misconceived  Orthodoxy  more  mon- 
strously than  when  he  said,  "  It  is  this  false  theology, 
with  its  vicarious  atonement,  salvation  witJiout  moral- 
ity or  inety,  only  hy  belief  in  absurd  doctrines,  which 
has  bewitched  the  leading  nations  of  the  earth  with 
such  practical  mischief"  (Weiss,  Life  of  Theodore 
Parker,  vol.  ii.  p.  497).  Gentlemen,  is  that  Ortho- 
doxy ?  [Cries  of  "  No ! "  "  No ! "  "  No ! "]  This  audi- 
ence says  that  this  is  not  a  fair  statement :  I  therefore 
shall  undertake  to  call  it  a  caricature.  It  is  omni- 
present in  Parker's  works.  Whether  it  was  a  dis- 
honest representation  I  care  not  to  determine.  My 
general  feeling  is,  that  Theodore  Parker  was  honest. 
He  rarely  came  into  companionship  with  Orthodox 
scholars  of  the  first  rank :  when  he  did,  he  seemed 
to  be  pleased  and  softened,  and  was,  in  many  respects, 
another  man.  Attacked,  he  always  stood  up  with 
the  spirit  of  the  drum-major  of  Lexington  under  his 
waistcoat.     [Applause.] 

What  is  saving  faith  ?  What  is  the  difference  be- 
tween belief  and  faith  ?  I  venture  much ;  but  I  shall 
be  corrected  swiftly  here  if  I  am  wrong.  Saving 
faith,  rightly  defined,  is  — 

1.  A  conviction  of  the  intellect  that  God,  or  God 
in  Christ  is,  and 

2.  An  affectionate  choice  of  the  heart  that  God,  or 


106  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

God  in  Christ,  should  be,  both  our  Saviour  and  our 
Lord. 

The  first  half  of  this  definition  is  belief;  the  whole 
is  faith.  All  of  it  without  the  last  two  words  would 
be  merely  religiosity,  and  not  religion.  There  is  noth- 
ing in  that  definition  which  teaches  that  a  man  is 
saved  by  opinion  irrespective  of  character.  Belief  is 
assent,  faith  is  consent,  to  God  as  both  Saviour  and 
Lord. 

On  April  19,  1775,  a  rider  on  a  horse  flecked  with 
blood  and  foam  brought  to  the  city  of  Worcester  the 
news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  in  which  Theodore 
Parker's  grandfather  captured  the  first  British  gun. 
The  horse  fell  dead  on  the  main  street  of  the  city, 
and  on  another  steed  the  rider  passed  westward  Avith 
his  news.  Some  of  those  who  heard  the  intelligence 
were  loyal,  and  some  were  disloyal.  They  all  heard 
that  there  had  been  a  victory  of  the  American  troops 
over  the  British,  and  they  all  believed  the  report. 
Now,  was  there  any  political  virtue  or  vice  in  the 
belief  by  the  Tory  in  Worcester  that  there  had  been 
a  victory  over  the  British  ?  Was  there  any  political 
virtue  or  vice  in  the  belief  by  the  patriot  yonder  that 
there  had  been  a  victory  over  the  British  ?  Neither 
the  one  nor  the  other.  Where,  then,  did  the  political 
virtue  or  political  vice  come  in?  Why,  when  your 
Tory  at  Worcester  heard  of  the  victory,  he  believed 
the  report,  and  was  sorry ;  and  was  so  sorry,  that  he 
took  up  arms  against  his  own  people.  When  the 
patriot  heard  the  report,  he  believed  it  and  was  glad ; 
and  was  so  glad,  that  he  took  up  arms  and  put  him- 


CARICATURED   DEFINITIONS.  107 

self  side  by  side  with  the  stalwart  shoulders  of  Par- 
ker's grandfather.  [Applause.]  In  that  attitude  of 
the  heart  lay  the  political  virtue  or  political  vice. 
Just  so,  in  the  government  of  the  universe,  we  all 
hear  that  God  is  our  Saviour  and  Lord,  and  we  all 
believe  this,  and  so  do  all  the  devils,  and  tremble.  Is 
there  any  virtue  or  vice  in  that  belief  taken  alone  ? 
None  whatever.  But  some  of  us  believe  this,  and 
are  sorry.  We  turn  aside,  and,  although  we  have 
assent,  we  have  no  consent  to  God ;  and  we  take  up 
arms  against  the  fact  that  he  is  our  Saviour  and  Lord. 
Others  of  us  believe  this,  and  by  divine  grace  are 
glad ;  we  have  assent  and  consent  both ;  Ave  come 
into  the  mood  of  total,  affectionate,  irreversible  self- 
surrender  to  God,  not  merely  as  a  Saviour,  but  also 
as  Lord.  When  we  are  in  that  mood  of  rejoicing 
lo3'alt3^  to  God,  we  have  saving  faith,  and  never  till 
then.  [Applause.]  How  can  salvation  be  obtained 
by  assent  alone,  that  is,  by  opinion  merely  ?  What 
is  salvation  ?  It  is  permanent  deliverance  from  both 
the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  sin.  Accepting  God 
gladly  as  Saviour,  we  are  delivered  from  the  guilt  of 
sin,  and,  accepting  him  gladly  as  Lord,  we  are  deliv- 
ered from  the  love  of  sin.  Only  when  we  accept 
God  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord  are  we  loyal ;  only 
when  we  are  affectionately  glad  to  take  him  as  both 
are  we  or  can  we  be  at  peace.  When  we  believe  the 
news  that  he  is  Saviour  and  Lord,  and  are  glad,  and 
so  glad  as  to  face  the  foe,  we  are  in  safety.  [Ap- 
plause.] 


I 


V. 

THEODORE  PAEKER  ON  THE  GUILT  OF  SIN. 

THE    SIXTY-THIRD    LECTURE     IX     THE    BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,  DELIVERED   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE   JAN.    29. 


<j>ipEt  (pspovT',  Ikt'lvei  d'  6  Kaivuv 
uifiVSL  61  fi'ifivovTog  kv  xpovu  Awf, 
Jraditv  Tov  ep^avra  •  dEOfxiov  yup. 

JEscHYLUs:  Af/amemnon,  1562. 


EiTrep  iariv  f/  T:a?ial<paTog 
AiKT)  ^vvedpog  Zrjvhg  upxaioLg  vo/ioig, 

Sophocles:  CEdipus,  1381. 


V. 


THEODORE  PARKER  ON  THE  GUILT  OF 

SIN. 

PRELUDE   OlSr   CUREENT   EVENTS. 

If  every  one  would  mend  one,  then  all  would  be 
amended.  If  every  one  would  mend  one,  no  doubt 
the  union  of  multitudinous  personal  efforts  would 
seem  to  produce  wholesale  conversions;  but  these 
would  be  only  the  massed  piecemeal  results  of  indi- 
vidual faithfulness.  The  snows  that  descend  the 
Alps  in  avalanches  fall  out  of  the  sky,  flake  by  flake. 
If  every  one  were  to  mend  one,  undoubtedly  there 
would  appear  to  be  some  excitement  in  society.  If 
every  one  were  to  mend  one,  no  doubt  in  the  process 
some  mistakes  would  be  made,  even  by  the  conscien- 
tious. But,  if  every  one  would  mend  one,  there 
would  come  into  society  a  consciousness  of  the  Divine 
Omnipresence,  and  we  should  forget  men,  and  lose 
sight  of  ourselves,  in  an  overshadowing  awe  of  a 
Power  not  ourselves.  It  is  an  endlessly  suggestive 
fact,  that  all  deeply-conscientious  action  brings  to  the 
actor,  and  often  to  the  beholder,  a  sense  of  the  near- 
ness of  a  Power  nof  of  man.     A  perfectly  holy  choice 

111 


112  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

makes  tangible  to  the  soul  the  touch  of  the  Unseen 
Holy.  Boston  means  to  do  her  duty,  and  therefore 
already  she  feels  that  God  is  here.  While  her  holy 
choice  continues,  that  feeling  will  continue  ;  and,  if 
that  feeling  continues  long,  the  fashion  of  her  coun- 
tenance will  be  altered. 

You,  men  of  letters  and  of  the  learned  professions ; 
you,  students ;  and  you,  who  call  yourselves  highly  cul- 
tured, will  agree  with  Cicero,  will  you  not,  when  he 
says,  that,  in  the  great  speeches  of  Demosthenes,  there 
is  always  something  immense  and  iufinite,  and  not  of 
man?  You  are  ready  to  affirm,  are  you  not,  with 
Matthew  Arnold,  that  there  is  in  human  history  a 
Power  not  ourselves  that  makes  for  righteousness  ? 
Now,  if  we  could  live  under  the  fructifying  although 
insufferable  light  of  the  scientific  certainty  that  this 
Power  not  only  was,  but  is,  and  is  to  come,  and  that 
it  is  here ;  if  we  could  rise  up,  every  one  desiring  to 
mend  another,  and  go  into  society,  in  the  name  of 
Something  immense  and  infinite,  that  is  not  of  society, 
although  in  it,  we  should  be  in  the  right  mood  to  be 
illuminated  of  the  Holy  Spirit  this  winter  in  Boston, 
and  so  to  be  useful  among  the  poor,  and  in  the  broth- 
els, and  in  the  gambling-saloons,  and  in  the  dens  of 
drunkenness. 

These  places  are  to  be  visited.  It  was  no  empty 
bugle-note  you  heard  yesterday  on  that  matter  of 
personal  visitation  among  the  destitute  and  degraded. 
Astounding  as  it  seems  that  we  are  to  go  into  these 
haunts  of  vice ;  women  to  go  into  places  of  infamy 
to  find  their  fallen  sisters,  young  men  into  places  of 


THEODORE   PARKER   ON   THE  GUILT   OF   SIN.   113 

drunkenness  to  find  their  brothers,  middle-aged  men 
into  the  places  where  human  forms  sit  as  spiders 
behind  the  webs  of  greed  to  draw  in  whatever  souls 
can  be  tempted  by  the  coarser  side  ;  however  amaz- 
ing it  may  seem  that  these  things  are  to  be  done  in 
Boston,  they  have  been  done  m  Edinburgh,  London, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Cliicago.  In  the 
next  three  months  you  will  see  them  done  here. 
[Applause.]  Some  of  you  will  be  doing  them  soon. 
Immense  wants  are  to  be  met  by  immense  truths. 
The  law  of  supply  and  demand,  the  commercial  prin- 
ciple, is  God's  law  of  revivals. 

Are  there  any  who  think  that  Boston  is  learning 
to  rely  on  scepticism  ?  There  is  no  scholarly  scepti- 
cism in  Boston.  [Applause.]  In  this  city,  there 
have  been  tliree  attempts  to  found  a  new  religion, 
and  each  effort  looks  now,  on  the  boughs  of  time, 
like  a  last  year's  bird's  nest.     [Applause.] 

You  remember  that  when  Timothy  Dwight  began 
his  career  at  Yale  College,  in  1795,  only  one  student 
out  of  the  whole  undergraduate  membership  of  that 
university  remained  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  Young 
men  there  were  accustomed  to  name' themselves  after 
the  French  infidels.  The  college  was  full  of  unre- 
portable  vices.  Those  were  the  days,  says  Lyman 
Beecher,  who  was  then  in  college,  when  boys,  as 
they  dressed  flax  in  the  barn,  read  Tom  Paine,  and 
believed  him.  For  a  long  period  our  land  had  been 
full  of  enthusiasm  for  France.  Jefferson  had  just 
come  to  the  presidential  chair.  There  was  hardly  a 
leading  individual  in  public  life,  in  his  administration, 


114  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

who  lield  what  are  now  called  evangelical  opinions. 
President  Dwiglit  met  a  sceptical  senior  class  in 
Yale  College,  and  they  urged  him  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  He  dis- 
cussed it ;  he  heard  them  oppose  what  he  regarded  as 
Christian  established  truth ;  he  urged  them  to  be 
thorough.  He  listened  to  their  best  attacks  patiently, 
and  answered  them  fully  and  fairly.  For  six  months 
he  delivered  massive  courses  of  thought  against  scio- 
lism in  religious  science  ;  and  from  that  time  infi- 
delity ran  into  hiding-holes  in  Yale  College. 

Harvard  University,  yonder,  dear  to  me  as  my 
Alma  Mater,  as  are  the  ruddy  drops  that  visit  this  sad 
heart,  was  as  full  as  Yale  of  the  unrest  of  this  French 
scepticism  at  the  end  of  the  Revolution.  Lafayette 
turned  the  whole  heart  of  our  people  toward  France. 
Young  men  in  Harvard,  as  often  as  in  Yale,  were 
proud  to  name  themselves  after  the  French  infidels. 
The  atrociously  shallow  and  unclean,  but  brilliant  and 
audacious,  Parisian  infidelity  of  the  period  —  a  scheme 
of  thought  which  we  now  regard  with  pity,  and  which 
no  scholar  cares  to  hear  named  —  was  then  attrac- 
tive even  to  scholarly  undergraduates.  Harvard 
never  had  a  President  Dwight  to  take  the  poison  of 
our  French  period  out  of  her  veins.  [Applause.] 
In  that  fact  begins  the  history  of  Boston  scepticism. 
This  is  frank  speech ;  it  is  not  bitter.  It  is  the  sad 
truth ;  but  it  will  do  to  tell  this  now  and  here,  for 
we  have  slowly  outgrown  the  poison. 

It  lay  in  the  veins  of  Harvard  and  Eastern  Massa- 
chusetts all  the  more  deeply,  and  had  the  more  sor- 


THEODORE  PARKER   ON   THE   GUILT   OF   SIN.   115 

cerous  effect,  because  of  the  half-way  covenant  which 
many  Massachusetts  churches  adopted,  admitting  to 
the  communion  those  who  did  not  pretend  to  have 
entered  on  a  new  life  at  all ;  and  this  simply  under 
the  political  pressure  of  the  time,  or  because,  for  a 
while  in  Massachusetts,  only  church-members  could 
vote. 

While  these  powerful  evils  of  the  half-way  cove- 
nant and  French  infidelity  were  yet  operative,  there 
was  an  attempt  to  found  a  new  religion.  And  this 
religion  has  had  many  names,  which  it  would  be  in- 
vidious to  mention  ;  but  it  was  always  of  a  liberal  sort. 
I  beg  you  not  to  understand  me  to  be  in  other  than 
the  mood  of  tears.  There  is  a  scholarly  liberalism,  a 
learned  liberalism ;  there  is  also  a  limp,  lavender 
liberalism.  It  was  limp,  lavender  liberalism  that  we 
had  ingrafted  upon  New  England  in  this  sickly  time, 
when  French  atheism  and  the  half-way  covenant  had 
prepared  the  way  for  the  setting  of  that  scion.  I  do 
not  see  that  the  grafted  bough  has  produced  fruit  of 
any  great  importance  ;  certainly  it  is  to  be  judged 
by  what  it  has  brought  forth.  The  old  boughs  are 
not  only  the  more  vigorous,  but  they  produce  fruit 
that  is  more  likely  to  satisfy  the  fathomless  human 
hunger  for  the  bread  of  life.  Scholarship  has  tried 
limp,  lavender  liberalism,  and  has  come  to  believe  in 
a  learned,  large,  Christian  liberalism  that  has  in  it  not 
much  lavender,  and  that  is  not  limp,  simply  because 
the  nature  of  things  on  which  religious  science  is 
founded  is  not  all  lavender,  and  is  not  limp  at  all. 
[Applause.] 


116  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

Boston,  in  the  name  of  exact  science,  believes,  I 
undertake  to  say,  that  until  a  man  loves  what  God 
loves,  and  hates  what  God  hates,  it  is  ill  with  him, 
and  that  it  will  continue  to  be  ill  until  that  disso- 
nance ceases.  [Applause.]  That  simple  creed  taken 
alone  would  be  enough  to  empower  and  equip  us  for 
religious  activity,  and  even 

"  To  put  a  soul 
Under  the  ribs  of  death." 

On  all  sides  of  us  men  are  living  in  the  love  of  what 
God  hates,  and  in  the  hate  of  what  God  loves.  I 
hold  it  to  be  incontrovertible,  that  all  clear  heads, 
the  globe  around,  are  now  united  in  the  conviction, 
that,  until  a  man  acquires  similarity  of  feeling  with 
God,  it  is  ill  with  him.  They  are,  I  think,  almost 
unanimously  united  in  the  conviction,  that,  if  a  man 
goes  through  life  cultivating  dissimilarity  of  feeling 
with  God,  this  prolonged  personal  dissonance  may 
become  chronic,  and  he  may  fall  into  a  final  perma- 
nence of  bad  character,  and  this  under  the  momentum 
of  evil  habit,  and  by  the  simple  law  of  the  self-propa- 
gating power  of  sin.  That  stupendous  and  ii-resisti- 
ble  natural  law  by  which  men  fall  into  final  perma- 
nence of  character,  either  good  or  bad,  is  in  operation 
around  us.  We  are  called  upon,  joining  hands  with 
that  law,  that  is,  Avith  Almighty  God,  to  live  in  simi- 
larity of  feeling  with  him,  and  then  to  cast  ourselves 
into  organizing  and  redemptive  conflict  for  the  deliv- 
erance of  men  from  dissonance  with  God.  In  the 
name  of  tremorless  certainty  we  must  proclaim  every- 


THEODORE   PARKER   ON   THE  GUILT   OF   SIN.   117 

where,  that  as  a  thing  cannot  be  and  not  be  at  the 
same  time  and  in  the  same  sense,  so,  unless  a  man 
loves  what  God  loves,  and  hates  what  God  hates, 
unless  a  man  comes  into  affectionate,  total,  irrever- 
sible self-surrender  to  God  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord, 
it  is  ill  with  him,  and  must  be  so  until  the  dissonance 
ceases  ;  and  that  the  dissonance  is  assuredly  less  and 
less  likely  to  cease,  the  longer  it  continues.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

Keep,  my  friends,  the  hush  of  what  Hegel  calls 
the  highest  act  of  the  human  spirit,  prayer,  in  this 
assembly  while  we  ask  whether  there  is  such  a  thing 
in  man  as  enmity  of  the  heart  against  God.  Theo- 
dore Parker  said  there  is  not.  When  the  unclean 
sweeper  of  chimneys,  a  dissipated  man,  comes  into 
the  presence  of  a  pure  and  queenly  woman,  he 
understands  his  leprosy,  perhaps  for  the  first  time, 
simply  because  it  is  brought  into  contrast  with  that 
virtue  of  which  Milton  said,  — 

"  So  dear  to  Heaven  is  saintly  chastity, 
That,  when  a  soul  is  found  sincerely  so, 
Ten  thousand  liveried  angels  lackey  her, 
And  in  clear  dream  and  solemn  vision 
Tell  her  of  things  that  no  gross  ear  can  hear." 

CoMUS,  453. 

It  is  only  when  a  hush,  produced  by  the  sense  of 
the  Divine  Omnipresence,  fills  tlie  chambers  of  phi- 
losophy, that  they  are  fit  places  in  which  to  discuss 
the  fact  of  sin.     Not  always  in  Paris  lias  that  condi- 


118  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tion  been  fulfilled,  not  always  at  Berlin  or  London, 
not  always  in  Boston.  Our  ears  are  too  gross  to 
hear  the  innermost  truths  of  conscience  until  we  feel 
the  breath  of  eternity  on  our  cheeks.  But  what  a 
man  sees  only  in  his  best  moments  as  truth  is  truth 
in  all  moments.  As  now  there  falls  a  hushed  sense 
of  the  Unseen  Holy  upon  this  city  of  scholarship,  it 
is  a  fit  time  to  raise  the  question  whether  sin  is  a 
self-evident  fact  in  human  experience.  Theodore 
Parker  affirmed  that  it  is  not. 

James  Freeman  Clarke,  when  Theodore  Parker 
was  in  Italy  in  1859,  went  into  the  pulpit  of  the 
latter,  and  was  so  faithful,  both  to  science  and  to 
friendship,  as  to  criticise  Parker's  scheme  of  thought 
for  not  adequately  recognizing  the  significance  of 
the  fact  of  sin.  In  reply  to  that  criticism,  there 
came  to  Mr.  Clarke,  from  Italy,  a  letter,  which  he 
gave  to  Theodore  Parker's  biographer,  who  has  given 
it  to  the  world.  It  is  a  painful  duty  of  mine  to-day 
to  cite  this  latest  and  frankest  expression  of  Theo- 
dore Parker's  views.  In  his  youth  Parker  had  writ- 
ten :  "  I  think  no  sin  can  make  an  indelible  mark  on 
what  I  call  the  soul.  I  think  sin  makes  little  mark 
on  the  soul,  for  much  of  it  is  to  be  referred  to  causes 
exterior,  even  to  the  physical  man,  and  much  to  the 
man's  organization.  Ninety-nine  hundredths  of  sin 
are  thus  explicable.  I  am  sure  that  sin,  the  result 
of  man's  circumstances,  or  of  his  organization,  can 
make  no  permanent  mark  on  the  soul "  (Weiss's  Life 
of  Parker^  vol.  i.  p.  149). 

Were  these  not  the  crude  opinions  of  a  beginner 


THEODORE  PARKER  ON  THE  GUILT  OF  SIN.  119 

in  philosophy  ?  Did  he  hold  these  opinions  through 
life?  Substantially  from  his  death-bed,  Theodore 
Parker  wrote  from  Italy,  in  1860,  to  James  Freeman 
Clarke :  — 

"  ^Many  thanks  for  standing  in  my  pulpit  and  preaching 
about  me  and  mine ;  all  the  more  thanks  for  the  criticisms.  Of 
course,  I  don't  agree  with  your  criticisms:  if  I  had,  I  should  not 
have  given  you  occasion  to  make  them. 

"  J^ow  a  word  about  sin.  It  is  a  theological  word,  and  is 
commonly  pronounced  ngstn-n-n-n !  But  I  think  the  thing 
which  ministers  mean  by  ngsin-n-n-n  has  no  more  existence  than 
phlogiston,  which  was  once  adopted  to  explain  combustion.  I 
find  sins,  i.e.,  conscious  violations  of  ^natural  right,  but  no  sin,  i.e., 
no  conscious  and  intentional  preference  of  wrong  (as  such)  to 
right  (as  such);  no  condition  of  '  enmity  against  God.'  I  sel- 
dom use  the  word  '  sin : '  it  is  damaged  phraseology,  tainted  by 
contact  with  infamous  notions  of  man  and  God.  I  have  some 
sermons  of  sin  and  of  sins,  which  I  may  live  long  enovigh  to  pre- 
pare for  printing,  but  also  may  not. 

"  Deacon  Wrj^ace  of  the  liellfire  Church  says,  '  Oh,  I  am  a 
great  sinner:  I  am  one  mass  of  sin  all  over;  the  whole  head  is 
sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint.  In  me  there  dwelleth  no  good 
thing.  There  is  no  health  in  me.'  —  'Well,'  you  say  to  hmi, 
'for  once,  deacon,  I  think  you  pretty  near  right;  but  you  are 
not  yet  quite  so  bad  as  you  talk. 

"  '  What  are  the  special  sins  you  do  commit?  ' 

"  '  Oh,  there  ainH  any :  I  hain't  got  a  bad  habit  in  the  world, 
—  no,  not  one! ' 

"  '  Then  what  did  you  mean  by  saying  just  now  that  you 
were  such  a  sinner?  ' 

"  '  Oh,  I  referred  to  my  nalur\-  it  is  all  ngsin-n-n-n.' 

"  That  is  the  short  of  it:  all  men  are  created  equal  in 
ngsin-n-n-n. 

"O  James!  I  think  the  Christian  (!)  doctrine  of  sin  is  the 


120  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

Devil's  own,  and  I  hate  it,  — hate  it  bitterly.  Orthodox  schol- 
ars say,  '  In  the  heathen  classics  you  find  no  consciousness  of 
sin. '     It  is  very  true :  God  be  thanked  for  it ! 

•  •«••••••••• 

"I  would  rather  have  a  good,  plump,  hearty  heathen,  like 
Aristotle,  or  Demosthenes,  or  Fabius  Maximus,  than  all  the 
saints  from  Peter,  James,  and  John  (dokountes  stuloi  elnal),  down 
to  the  last  one  manufactured  by  the  Roman  Church ;  I  mean  as 
those  creatm-es  are  represented  in  art.  For  the  actual  men  I 
have  a  reasonable  respect ;  they  had  some  spunk  in  them ;  while 
the  statues  even  of  Paid  represent  hun  '  as  mean  as  a  yaller  dog. ' 
But  let  n(jsin-n-n-n  go  "  ("VVeiss's  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  i.  ]p.  151). 

Gentlemen,  that  is  an  amazing  letter.  The  tone 
of  it  is  unworthy  of  a  cultured  man,  and  is  astound- 
ing in  a  dying  man.  Never  would  such  words  have 
been  chosen  by  Channing,  never  by  Emerson,  and 
never  by  Parker  himself,  if  there  had  been  beliind 
his  phrases  a  calm,  scientific  conviction  that  on  tliis 
majestic  theme  he  was  philosophically  right.  There 
is  in  that  letter  an  irritability,  I  had  almost  said  a 
vulgarity,  of  tone,  proceeding  not  from  Theodore 
Parker's  better  nature,  but  largely,  I  think,  from  his 
fear  that  his  positions  as  to  sin  would  not  bear  the 
test  of  scientific  criticism,  and  yet  could  not  be 
wholly  given  up  without  giving  up  the  very  Malakoff 
and  Redan  of  his  absolute  religion. 

Why,  if  you  should  adopt  as  an  established  truth 
the  proposition  that  there  is  not  to  be  found  in  man 
any  intentional  preference  of  wrong  to  right,  or  no 
enmity  against  God,  and  if  j'ou  should  carefully 
expurgate  literature  by  that  rule,  how  would  Shak- 
speare  look?     There  is  no  such  thing  as  preference 


THEODORE    PAKKER   ON   THE   GUILT   OF   SIN.   121 

of  WTong  to  riglit,  Theodore  Parker  says.  If  there 
were  to  be  edited  an  edition  of  Shakspeare  accord- 
ing to  this  principle,  how  mucli  would  be  left  of  the 
naturalness  of  that  mirror  of  humanity?  We  now 
have  character  after  character  in  Shakspeare  repre- 
sented as  making  evil  a  delight,  and  as  knowing  the 
right  and  approving  it,  and  as  abhorring  the  wrong 
and  yet  pursuing  it.  Your  Shakspeare  edited  after 
the  Parker  principle,  that  there  never  is  in  man  a 
preference  of  wrong  to  right,  would  be  a  limp,  bone- 
less, flaccid,  lavender  thing.  You  would  scorn  to 
call  such  a  Shakspeare  a  fair  mirror  of  human  life. 
You  would  find  such  an  expurgated  edition  plenti- 
fully misleading  in  the  study  of  man's  nature.  lu 
the  case  supposed,  you  coidd  not  admit  that  Shak- 
speare is  the  prince  of  johilosophers,  as  well  as  the 
prince  of  poets,  and  that  he  becomes  both  the  one 
and  the  other  simply  by  liolding  up  his  mirror  to  all 
that  is. 

Were  you  to  expurgate  the  laws  of  the  civil  gov- 
ernments of  the  world  according  to  Parker's  rule, 
where  would  justice  be?  Ask  the  gentlemen  who 
every  day  stand  in  courts  of  justice,  and  administer 
in  God's  name  the  eternal  law  of  right,  and  they  will 
tell  you,  that  the  expurgation  of  our  courts  by  the 
principle  tliat  there  is  no  intentional  preference  of 
wrong  to  right  would  reduce  legal  equity  to  moral 
cliaos ;  and  that  every  thing  in  law  proceeds  upon 
the  supposition  that  man  does  choose  the  wrong 
when  he  knows  it  to  be  wrong. 

Where  would  jDhilosophy  be,  if  it  were  expurgated 


122  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

by  the  Parkerian  principle  ?  We  have,  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  studied  more  deeply  than  ever 
before  the  subjective  experiences  of  the  human 
heart  in  the  moral  region.  It  is  coming  now  to  be 
one  of  the  higest  offices  of  philosophy  to  explore  the 
deepest  inmost  of  conscience,  and  to  reveal  to  man 
the  extent  of  that  disturbance  which  must  arise  in 
his  nature  when  he  loves  what  God  hates,  and  hates 
what  God  loves.  It  is  now  the  highest  office  of  phi- 
losophy to  show  man  not  only  that  he  has  con- 
science, but  that  conscience  has  him. 

I  affirm,  that,  as  men  who  love  clear  ideas,  we  do 
not  want  either  philosophy,  or  law,  or  literature, 
expurgated  according  to  Parker's  principle ;  but  do 
you  want  theology  expurgated  by  it  ?  Do  you  want 
this  delicate  little  shoot  you  call  religious  science 
shut  away  from  the  healthy  winds  of  criticism  ?  Is 
it  to  be  kept  behind  the  walls  of  some  colossal  au- 
thority, and  not  allowed  to  battle  its  way  to  its  full 
size  in  all  the  tempests  that  strike  it  out  of  the  north, 
south,  east,  or  west  ?  How  is  religious  science  ever 
to  become  a  stalwart  oak,  throwing  out  its  boughs  in 
every  direction,  vigorously  and  graciously,  and  no 
fear  of  tempests,  unless  it  contend  with  all  the 
shocks  of  criticism  that  beat  on  philosophy  and  law 
and  literature?  Religious  science  must  take  her 
chances  according  to  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  I  maintain,  that  if  you  will  not  expurgate 
literature,  law,  and  your  philosophy,  according  to 
the  principle  that  a  man  never  has  enmity  against 
God,  you  must  not  expurgate  your  theology  accord- 


THEODORE  PAEKER  ON  THE   GUILT   OF   SIN.   123 

ing  to  that  principle.  [Applause.]  We  must  not 
play  fast  and  loose  witbi  the  scientific  tests  of  truth. 

Having  already  shown  that  Theodore  Parker  did 
not  carefully  distinguish  intuition  fi'om  instinct,  or 
inspiration  from  illumination,  or  inspiration  from  dic- 
tation, or  the  supernatural  from  the  unnatural,  or 
belief  from  faith,  I  must  further  affirm  that,  he  made 
no  adequate  distinction  between  human  infirmity  and 
human  iniquity.     [Applause.] 

What  are  the  chief  points  established  by  self-evi- 
dent truths,  as  to  the  fact  of  sin  ? 

1.  Moral  good  is  what  ought  to  be  in  acts  of  choice. 

2.  Moral  evil  is  what  ought  not  to  be  in  acts  of 
choice. 

3.  Conscience  intuitively  perceives  the  difference 
between  what  ought  to  be  and  what  ought  not  to  be 
in  the  soul's  intentions  or  acts  of  choice. 

These  are  central  definitions,  and  apprehensible, 
I  hope.  Remember  that  I  do  not  say  that  conscience 
knows  what  ought  to  be  in  any  matter  of  expediency 
outside  of  the  soul.  Strictly  speaking,  there  is  no 
right  or  wrong  in  external  action  taken  wholly 
apart  from  its  motives  :  there  is  in  such  action  only 
expediency  or  inexpediency.  There  may  be  physi- 
cal evil  outside  the  field  of  motives ;  but  moral  evil 
i{>  to  be  found  only  in  the  acts  of  choice.  Conscience 
intuitively  perceives  intentions,  or  choices,  to  be 
either  good  or  bad.  Here  stands  on  one  side  of  the 
will  a  motive,  and  on  the  other  is  another  motive ; 
and,  looking  on  what  we  mean  to  do,  we  decide 
whether  we  will  do  the  best  we  know  or  not.     [An- 


124  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

plause.]  Riglit  and  "wrong  in  motives  are  pointed 
out  by  conscience,  and  not  in  merely  external  ac- 
tion. I  do  not  know  by  conscience,  but  only  by 
judgment,  whether  it  is  best  for  me  to  vote  for  the 
electoral  bill  or  not ;  but  I  should  vote  for  it  if  I 
were  in  Congress.  [Applause.] 

There  is -in  conscience  the  power  of  tasting  mo- 
tives, just  as  in  the  tongue  there  is  the  power  of 
tasting  flavors.  I  know  by  the  tongue  whether  a 
given  fruit  is  bitter  or  sweet.  No  doubt  we  bring 
up  the  fruit  to  the  lips  by  the  hands ;  no  doubt  we 
look  at  it  with  the  eyes;  no  doubt  we  perceive  its 
odor  by  the  nostrils :  but  only  by  the  tongue  do 
we  taste  it.  So,  no  doubt,  the  intellect  is  concerned 
in  bringing  up  considerations  before  the  inner  tribu- 
nal; but,  after  all,  the  moral  character  of  our  motives 
is  tasted  by  a  special  power  which  we  call  conscience. 
This  perceives  intuitively  the  difference  between  a 
good  intention  and  a  bad.  But  a  good  motive  is  one 
which  conscience  not  only  pronounces  right,  but  one 
which  conscience  says  ought  to  rule  the  will.  Two 
things  are  thus  pointed  out  by  conscience  in  motives, 
—  rightness  and  oughtness.  The  former  is  perceived 
intuitively ;  the  latter  is  felt  instinctively.  The 
oughtness  is  a  mysterious,  powerful  constraint  cast 
upon  us  by  some  force  outside  of  ourselves,  and 
operating  through  all  our  instincts.  I  am  willing  to 
define  conscience  as  that  which  perceives  and  feels 
rightness  and  oughtness  in  motives  or  intentions. 

You  cannot  go  behind  this  rightness  and  ought- 
ness which  conscience  points  out.     Why  is  this  fruit 


THEODORE  PARKER  OX  THE  GUILT  OF  SDT.  125 

bitter  to  the  human  taste  ?  Why  is  this  other  sweet  ? 
We  are  so  made,  that  the  tongue  tastes  here  bitterness 
and  there  sweetness,  and  you  cannot  go  behind  that 
ultimate  fact.  You  are  so  made,  that,  if  you  do  what 
you  know  has  beliind  it  a  wrong  intention,  there  is  a 
constraint  brought  upon  you.  You  have  violated 
the  supreme  law  of  things  in  the  universe.  You  are 
in  dissonance  with  your  own  nature;  and  there 
springs  up  in  you,  under  the  inflexible  law  of  con- 
science, a  sense  of  guilt. 

4.  Conscience  reveals,  therefore,  a  moral  law. 

5.  That  law  is  above  the  human  will,  and  acts 
without,  and  even  against,  the  consent  of  the  will. 

6.  There  cannot  be  a  thought  without  a  being 
who  thinks ;  nor  a  law  without  a  being  who  wills ; 
nor  a  moral  law  without  a  moral  lawgiver. 

There  must  have  been  the  thought  of  the  right 
and  of  the  good  before  there  could  have  been  a  law 
promulgated  in  the  universe  supporting  the  right 
and  the  good.  That  thought  of  the  right  and  the 
good,  which  must  have  gone  before  the  law,  could 
have  existed  only  in  a  thinker.  The  choice  of  that 
tliinker  to  promulgate  a  law  eternally  supporting  the 
right  and  the  good  could  have  proceeded  only  from 
a  righteous  thinker.  There  cannot  be  a  law  with- 
out a  being  who  wills ;  for  law  is  only  the  method 
of  the  operation  of  a  will.  That  is  Darwin,  if  you 
please.  That  is  not  Hackel,  nor  Huxley ;  but  it  is 
Charles  Darwin,  and  ninety-five  out  of  a  hundred  of 
all  the  foremost  men  of  physical  science.  It  is 
Archbishop  Butler  too,  and  Julius  Miiller,  and  none 


126  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

the  worse  for  that.     [Applause.]     Ther^  cannot  be 
a  moral  law  without  a  moral  lawgiver. 

7.  When,  therefore,  the  will  chooses  to  act  from  a 
motive  which  conscience  pronounces  evil,  that  act 
of  the  will  is  disobedience,  not  to  abstract  law  only, 
but  to  God. 

8.  Thus  evil  becomes  sin. 

I  have  defined  moral  evil  as  that  which  ought  not 
to  be,  or  as  that  which  is  condemned  by  the  moral  law 
revealed  by  conscience.  Sin  is  disobedience  to  the 
moral  law  considered  as  the  revelation  of  a  Personal 
Lawgiver.  Sin  is  a  choice  of  wrong  motives.  Per- 
sonal disloyalty  to  the  Infinite  Oughtness  —  that  is 
sin.  All  agree  to  this  latter  definition;  but  the 
Somewhat,  which  I  call  the  Infinite  Oughtness,  is  to 
all  men  who  think  clearly,  not  merely  a  Somewhat, 
but  a  Someone.     [Applause.] 

Let  us  now  proceed  cautiously,  step  by  step,  and 
convince  ourselves  that  on  this  theme  much  may  be 
placed  beyond  controversy  by  a  simple  statement 
of  the  acknowledged  laws  of  the  operation  of  con- 
science. 

9.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  man  often  hears  a 
still  small  voice  within  him  saying  "  I  ought." 

Does  anybody  deny  tliis  ?  I  wish  to  be  very  ele- 
mentary, and  to  carry  the  assent  of  your  minds  point 
by  point;  and  I  forewarn  you  here  and  now  that 
immense  consequences  hang  on  your  admission  of 
these  fundamental,  simple  principles.  Be  on  your 
guard.  Do  you  deny  that  sometimes  we  all  hear  a 
still  small  voice  within  us  saying  "  I  ought "  ?    If  a 


THEODORE  PARKER   ON   THE   GUILT   OF   SIN.   127 

man  is  conscious  of  any  great  defect  in  his  organiza- 
tion, —  intellectual,  moral,  or  physical,  —  he  does  not 
blame  himself  for  it ;  but  the  instant  a  man  violates 
a  command  of  conscience  uttered  in  this  whispered 
"I  ought,"  he  blames  himself.  I  may  have  limita- 
tions of  my  faculties,  such  that  I  never  can  amount 
to  much ;  but  I  do  not  blame  myself.  But,  the  in- 
stant I  do  what  conscience  pronounces  lorong,  that 
moment  I  know  that  I  am  to  blame.  That  is  human 
nature ;  and  Edmund  Burke  used  to  say,  "I  cannot 
alter  the  constitution  of  man."  It  is  in  every  sane 
man  to  say  "  I  ought." 

10.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  man  often  answers 
the  voice  which  says  "  I  ought "  by  saying  "  I  will 
not." 

You  doubt  that  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact,  certified  to  you 
by  any  narrative  of  your  own  experience,  that  you 
have  multitudes  of  times  replied  to  this  still  small 
voice  "  I  ought,"  by  a  soft  or  vehement  "  I  will 
not." 

11.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  instantly  and  inva- 
riably, after  saying  to  "  I  ought "  "  I  will  not,"  a  man 
must  say,  "  I  am  not  at  peace  with  myself." 

12.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  he  must  say  also, 
"  I  am  not  in  fellowship  with  the  nature  of  things." 

Why,  tills  is  only  tautology.  If  a  man  has  a  pow- 
erfid  faculty  within  him  that  says  one  thing,  and 
another  powerful  faculty  wliich  says  another  thing, 
there  is  within  him  civil  war.  Peace  ends.  He 
recognizes  the  condition  of  the  republic  of  his 
faculties  by  his  wails  of  unrest.     He  knows  that  the 


128  TRA^^SCENDENTALISM. 

disturbance  of  his  nature  resulted  from  his  saying 
"  I  will  not  "  to  the  still  small  voice,  "  I  ought." 

13.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  he  must  say  also, 
"  I  have  lost  fellowship  with  God." 

What  is  there  in  sin  more  mysterious  than  the 
sense  which  always  comes  with  it,  that  the  stars  in 
their  courses  fight  against  us  when  we  do  not  say  "  I 
will  "  in  response  to  "  I  ought "  ?  There  is  iq  the 
inner  heavens  a  voice  saying  "  Thou  shalt,"  "  Thou 
oughtest ;  "  and  we  reply  to  that  celestial  summons, 
"  I  will  not :  "  and  instantly  out  of  the  inner  heavens 
falls  on  us  a  thunderbolt.  It  is  by  irreversible, 
natural  law  that  every  man  who  says  "  I  will  not," 
when  the  inner  voice  says  "  I  ought,"  falls  into  disso- 
nance with  himself,  and  into  a  feeling  that  the  stars 
in  their  courses  fight  against  him.  There  is  nowhere 
a  heart,  given  at  all  to  sensitive  self-study,  that  does 
not  understand  perfectly  how  the  sun  behind  the  sun 
may  be  put  out  by  saying  "  I  will  not "  to  the  still 
small  voice  which  says  "  I  ought."  God  causes  the 
natural  sun  to  rise  on  both  the  just  and  the  unjust^ 
hut  not  the  sun  behind  the  sun.  We  are  so  made,  that 
the  only  light  of  our  inner  sky  is  peace  with  our- 
selves. In  the  nature  of  things,  the  sun  behind  the 
sun  comes  not,  and  cannot  come,  forth  for  us,  from 
the  east,  if  we  say  "I  will  not,"  when  conscience 
says  "  I  ought."  The  simple  refusal  to  follow  that 
still  small  voice  leaves  a  drought  in  the  soul ;  for  it 
dries  up  the  sweetest  rains  from  the  sky  behind  the 
sky.  It  is  terrific,  scientific,  penetratingly  human 
truth,  that  the   sun  behind  the  sun   does  ^lot  rise 


THEODOKE  PAEKER  ON  THE  GUILT   OF   SIN.   129 

equally  upon  the  just  and  tlie  unjust ;  and  that  the 
rains  from  the  sky  behind  the  sky  do  not  fall,  never 
have  fallen,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  never  will  or 
can  fall,  in  this  world  or  the  next,  equally  iipon  the 
righteous  and  the  unrighteous.     [Applause.] 

14.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  he  who  is  disloyal  to 
the  voice  which  says  "I  ought"  must  also  say,  "I 
ought  to  satisfy  the  injured  majesty  of  the  law  I  have 
violated.  Sin  creates  an  obligation  to  satisfy  the  in- 
jured majesty  of  the  moral  law.  (See  Julius  Mul- 
LEE,  Doctrine  of  Sin,  vol.  i.  pp.  1-200.) 

15.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that,  in  the  absence  of 
expiation,  man  forebodes  punishment. 

That  sounds  like  a  theological  and  biblical  propo- 
sition: it  is  simply  an  ethical  and  purely  scientific 
one.  It  is  what  is  taught  everywhere  in  Shakspeare 
and  the  Greek  poets.  It  is  what  is  illustrated  by  all 
the  history  of  Pagan  sacrifices  since  the  world  began. 
If  we  are  to  estimate  the  strength  of  any  human  im- 
pulse by  the  work  it  will  do,  then  tliis  perception 
that  SLQ  creates  an  obligation  to  satisfy  the  injured 
majesty  of  the  moral  law  must  be  presumed  to  have 
behind  it  a  most  powerful  force.  Again  and  again, 
age  after  age,  it  has  shown  itself  to  be  stronger  than 
love  or  death.  There  is  nothing  clearer  than  that  a 
man  is  so  made,  that  after  he  has  been  disloyal,  after 
he  has  looked  into  the  face  of  God,  and  said  "  I  will 
not,"  he  feels  that  tliis  act  has  created  an  obligation 
which  must  in  some  way  be  discharged  to  satisfy  the 
majesty  and  the  moral  right  of  the  moral  law. 


130  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  thing  to  say  that  that  is  the 
way  a  man  is  made ;  but  that  is  the  way  he  is  made. 
A  liberal  theology  is  one  that  looks  at  all  the  facts. 
"Instead  of  fashioning  with  great  labor  a  theory 
that  would  account  for  all  the  facts,"  Theodore 
Parker,  his  biographer  Mr.  Weiss  says,  "overcame 
doubt  by  a  humane  and  tender  optimism  "  (Z/fe  of 
Parker,  vol.  i.  p.  150). 

Gentlemen,  there  must  be  a  philosophy  that  will 
account  for  all  the  facts  of  human  nature,  if  we  are 
ever  to  have  a  religious  science ;  for  whether  you 
will  or  not  think  boldly,  north,  south,  east,  and 
west,  men  by  and  by  will  do  so,  and  they  will  look 
into  all  these  astounding  certainties  of  human 
nature.  When  a  man  says  "I  ought,"  and  then 
says  "  I  will  not,"  he  must  say,  "  I  am  not  at  peace 
with  myself,"  "I  am  dropped  out  of  fellowship  with 
the  nature  of  things,"  "  I  am  not  in  fellowship  with 
God,"  "The  stars  fight  against  me,"  "Nature  is 
against  me,"  "I  ought,  I  ought  to  render  satisfac- 
tion." That  is  the  way  Nature  acts.  Shakspeare 
was  philosopher  enough  to  make  one  of  his  characters 
say,  when  one  complained  that  he  was  a  man  whom 
fortune  had  most  cruelly  scratched,  that  it  was  "  too 
late  to  pare  her  nails  now,"  and  that  "  Fortune  is  a 
good  lady,  and  will  not  have  knaves  thrive  long 
under  her  "  (^AlVs  Well  that  Ends  Well,  act  v.  sc.  ii.). 
Even  Shakspeare  speaks  of  a  "  primrose  way  to  the 
everlasting  bonfire  "  (^Macbeth,  act  ii.  sc.  i.),  and  of 
"  the  flowery  way  that  leads  to  the  broad  gate  and 


THEODOKE  PAKKER  ON  THE  GUILT  OF  SIN.  131 

the  great  fire  "  (AIVs  Well  that  Ends  Well,  act.  iv.  sc. 
v.)«  Too  late  !  Probably  Sliakspeare  meant  some- 
thing by  that  phrase,  and  knew  what  he  meant. 
For  one,  I  think  he  meant  that  it  is  possible  for  a 
man  to  fall  into  a  final  permanency  of  character, 
hating  what  God  loves,  and  loving  what  God  hates. 

16.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that,  even  after  a  man 
disloyal  to  conscience  has  reformed,  he  has  behind 
him  an  irreversible  record  of  sin  in  the  past. 

It  will  always  remain  true  that  he  has  been  a  de- 
serter; and  therefore  conscience  will  always  leave 
him  at  far  lower  heights  than  those  of  peace,  if  he 
be  not  sure  that  some  power  beyond  his  own  has  sat- 
isfied the  moral  law.     [Applause.] 

17.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that,  when  man  is  free 
from  the  love  of  sin,  he  is  not  free  from  constitu- 
tional apprehension  as  to  the  effect  of  the  guilt  of 
past  sin  on  his  personal  future  in  this  world  and  the 
next. 

18.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  the  desire  to  be  sure 
that  the  guilt  of  sin  will  be  overlooked  is  one  of  the 
most  powerful  forces  in  human  nature. 

19.  It  is  incontrovertible,  that  an  atonement  may 
thus  in  the  solitudes  of  conscience  be  scientifically 
known  to  be  the  desire  of  all  nations ;  that  is,  of  all 
who  have  fallen  into  that  disturbance  of  the  moral 
nature  which  is  called  sin.     [Applause.] 

20.  The  atonement  which  reason  can  prove  is 
needed,  revelation  declares  has  been  made.  [Ap- 
plause.] 


132  TEAJSrSCENDENTALISM. 

I  do  not  a£&rm,  my  friends,  that  by  reason  I  can 
prove  the  fact  of  the  atonement.  I  believe,  as  assur- 
edly as  that  I  exist,  that  by  reason  I  can  prove  our 
need  of  the  atonement.  [Applause.]  I  do  not 
assert  the  sufficiency  of  natural  religion;  I  assert 
merely  its  efficiency.  I  believe  that  Julius  Miiller, 
building  on  the  same  axiomatic  truths  which  Parker 
relied  upon,  and  forming  his  system  with  entire  free- 
dom, and  at  last  finding  it  correspondent  with  Chris- 
tian truth,  has  been  far  more  loyal  to  the  scientific 
method  than  he  who  asserted  that  there  is  in  man  no 
enmity  against  God.  That  an  atonement  has  been 
made  you  must  learn  from  revelation ;  that  an  atone- 
is  needed  you  can  learn  from  human  reason. 

Old  man  and  blind,  Michael  Angelo,  in  the  Vatican, 
used  to  stand  before  the  Torso,  the  famous  fragment 
of  a  statue,  made,  possibly,  by  one  of  the  most  skilled 
chisels  of  antiquity ;  and,  with  his  fingers  upon  the 
mutilated  lines,  he  would  tell  his  pupils  how  the  entire 
figure  must  have  been  formed  when  it  was  whole. 
He  would  trace  out  the  fragmentary  plan,  and  say 
that  the  head  must  have  had  this  posture,  and  the 
limbs  that  posture,  and  that  the  complete  work  could 
have  been  only  what  the  fragments  indicated.  Reli- 
gious science  with  the  dim  torch  of  reason,  and  not 
illuminated  by  revelation,  is  a  blind  Michael  Angelo, 
standing  before  the  Torso  of  the  religious  universe, 
and  feeling  blindly  along  fragmentary  lines.  Al- 
though the  head  of  this  statue  is  infinitely  beyond 
oiu'  touch  or  sight  in  the  infinities  and  the  eternities 


THEODORE  PAHKEK  ON  THE  GTHLT   OF  SIN.   133 

above  us,  and  althougli  its  feet  stand  on  adamant 
lower  than  thought  can  reach  with  its  plummet,  we 
do  know,  in  the  name  of  the  universality  of  law, 
that  the  lines  we  touch  in  our  blindness  in  natural 
religion  would,  if  completed  according  to  the  plan 
which  is  tangible  to  us,  be  revealed  religion,  and 
nothing  less.     [Applause.] 


VI. 

FINAL  PEEMANENCE  OF  MORAL  CHAEACTER. 

THE    SIXTY-FOURTH    LECTURE    IN    THE    BOSTON  MONDAY   LEC- 
TURESHIP,   DELIVERED    IN   TREMONT    TEMPLE   FEB.    5. 


'  Repeated  sin  impairs  the  judgment. 
He  whose  judgment  is  impaired  sins  repeatedly." 

Bhagvat  Gheeta. 


TToXaiyEV^  yap  7i£y<j 
Trapa^aaiav  UKvnocvov  • 
aluva  6'  ic  Tphov  fisvec 

^scuxiius:  Theb.,742. 


VI. 


FINAL    PERMANENCE    OF   MORAL   CHAR- 
ACTER. 

PREIiUDE   ON   CTIBRENT   EVENTS. 

Bad  advice,  John  Milton  says,  may  slay  not  only 
a  life,  but  an  immortality. 

We  have  no  right  to  advise  the  religiously  irreso- 
lute to  any  thing  which  they  might  die  doing,  and 
die  unsaved.  Applying  strenuously  to  practice  that 
searching  and  transfiguring  principle,  from  how  much 
dawdlinjr  advice  should  we  and  those  whom  we  coun- 
sel  be  delivered !     [Applause.] 

Not  a  few  of  us  are  likely  to  be  called  upon  this 
winter  to  advise  inquirers  after  the  religious  life ; 
and  perhaps  some  of  us  will  think  it  suiEcient  to  say, 
"  Read  good  books,"  "  Converse  with  pious  friends," 
"  Attend  church."  A  man  might  die  doing  all  these 
tilings,  and  die  unsaved.  What  is  salvation?  De- 
liverance from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  sin. 
Shall  we  say  to  the  soul  which  as  yet  is  disloyal  to 
conscience,  "  Listen  to  the  best  public,  and  read  the 
best  printed,  discussions  of  religious  truth "  ?  A 
man  might  die  doing  that,  and  die  unsaved.     "  At- 

137 


138  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

tend  devotional  meetings ;  throw  yourself  into  those 
assemblies  where  the  union  of  many  minds  and 
hearts  in  one  purpose,  and  that  the  loftiest,  makes 
religion  contagious  "  ?  A  man  might  die  doing  that, 
and  not  die  free  from  the  love  of  sin  or  from  the 
guilt  of  sin. 

Of  course,  you  will  not  understand  me  to  under- 
value these  tried  and  crowned  instrumentalities  for 
the  religious  awakening  and  culture  of  the  soul. 
They  are  efficient:  they  are  not  sufficient.  Never- 
theless, many  who  call  themselves  intelligent  Chris- 
tians give  no  other  than  this  dawdling,  unscientific, 
completely  unbiblical,  and  often  incalculably  mis- 
chievous advice  to  the  religiously  irresolute. 

Will  the  use  of  stereotyped  religious  phrases  make 
our  advice  sufficient,  if  it  is  followed,  to  save  a  soul 
from  both  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  sin? 
"  Look  to  Jesus,"  you  say.  Surely  a  man  might  do 
that,  in  the  sense  in  which  many  understand  the 
phrase,  and  not  be  free  from  the  love  of  sin  or  the 
guilt  of  sin.  I  do  not  say  that  any  soul  can  do  that 
intelligently,  and  not  be  saved.  What  misunder- 
standing is  there  of  that  phrase,  and  of  the  hallowed 
expression,  "  Come  to  Jesus  "  !  Some  say,  "  Believe 
that  Jesus  is  Christ,  and  you  shall  be  saved.  Do  you 
believe  that  Jesus  is  God  ?  Then  you  are  saved." 
I  have  heard  that  statement  made  in  not  a  few  in- 
quiry-rooms ;  but  a  more  infamous  disloyalty  to  both 
scriptural  and  scientific  truth  cannot  be  imagined 
than  the  assertion  that  salvation  comes  from  merely 
believing  that  Jesus  is  the  Son   of  God.     I  know 


FTNAIi  PERJ»rAXEXCE  OP  MORAL   CHARACTER.   139 

where  I  am  speaking,  and  what  I  am  saying,  I  hope. 
It  is  not  unfamiliar  business  to  me  to  study  the  holy 
of  holies  of  a  religious  awakening ;  for  it  was  my 
fortune  for  some  years  to  act  as  evangelist,  in  part ; 
and  I  have  often  found  in  that  innermost  shrine  the 
most  ghastly  misconceptions  doing  immortal  mischief. 
The  religiously  irresolute  must  be  allowed  to  rest  in 
nothing  which  does  not  involve  their  immediate  and 
total  self-surrender  to  God  as  both  Saviour  and 
Lord. 

Your  Romish  priest  comes  to  the  dying  soldier  on 
the  battle-field,  and  there  are  but  a  few  minutes  for 
religious  conversation.  Very  possibly  he  holds  the 
crucifix  before  the  eyes  in  wliich  the  film  of  death 
is  already  visible,  and  saj's,  "  Believe  that  Jesus  is 
Christ,  and  you  will  be  saved."  To  witness  such  a 
scene  many  times  is  enough  to  make  a  wise  man  in- 
sane. To  misdirect  authoritatively  a  parting  spirit 
not  yet  loyal  to  conscience  is  to  slay,  perhaps,  not 
only  life,  but  immortality.  How  does  the  poor, 
doubting,  weak,  trembling  soul  understand  that  lan- 
guage ?  Perhaps  he  has  no  other  meaning  conveyed 
to  him  than  that,  if  he  believes  that  God  was  in  some 
way  in  Christ,  he  will  be  saved.  Beyond  all  contro- 
versy, he  might  believe  that,  and  not  be  free  from 
the  love  of  sin  or  the  guilt  of  sin.  We  read  on 
high  authority  that  the  black  angels  believe  as  much 
as  that,  and  tremble.  We  must  beware  of  falling 
into  the  Romish  error  of  confounding  assent  with 
consent,  or  belief  with  faith.  In  the  name  of  sci- 
ence, no  less  than  in  that  of  the  Bible,  we  must 


140  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

beware  of  advising  the  unconverted  to  do  any  thing 
that  does  not  include  immediate,  total,  affectionate, 
irreversible  self-surrender  to  God  as  both  Saviour 
and  Lord.     [Applause.] 

Stereotyped  phrases,  although  struck  out  originally 
at  white-heat,  may,  in  religious  as  well  as  in  poetic 
phraseology,  at  last,  after  centuries  of  use,  become 
cold  cinders.  Cant  is  the  use  of  cooled  cinders  in 
place  of  glowing  coals.  There  is  as  much  literary  as 
religious  cant  in  the  world.  Eloquent  as  many  of 
our  oldest  human  religious  phrases  may  be,  touchingly 
historic  as  they  are  to  an  educated  mind,  and  measure- 
lessly  deep  as  some  of  them  are  to  a  student,  their 
stereotyped  character  of  coiu-se  often  diminishes 
greatly  their  clearness  to  the  head,  and  vastly  their 
impressiveness  to  the  heart,  of  the  inattentive  and 
half-educated.  Once  a  century,  the  world  needs  a 
new  set  of  phrases  for  all  its  greatest  truths.  Chan- 
ging phrases  for  truths  that  never  change  keeps  the 
latter  always  new. 

There  are  two  styles  of  language,  —  the  biblical 
and  the  scientific.  As  a  precaution  against  fateful 
misunderstanding,  why  should  we  not  employ  both, 
since  our  personal  interpretation  of  biblical  phrases  is 
often  not  that  which  the  mind  of  the  inquirer  makes  ? 
There  is  a  great  difference  between  believing  and 
believing  in.  I  believe  Congress  when  it  makes  a 
public  statement ;  but  I  do  not  believe  in  all  the  acts 
of  Congress,  nor  in  all  its  members.  I  believe  Ben- 
edict Arnold  when  he  writes  an  autobiographical 
sketch ;  but  I  do  not  believe  in  Benedict  Arnold.    I 


FINAL  PEEMANEXCE  OF  MORAL  CHAEACTEE,.   141 

Lelieve  TVasliington  and  Lincoln  when  they  write  let- 
ters ;  and  I  also  believe  in  "Washington  and  Lincoln. 
On  the  one  hand  we  have  believing^  and  on  the  other 
believing  in  or  on  ;  and  the  Greek  tongue  makes  even 
a  clearer  distinction  between  the  two  than  the  Eng- 
lish. But  when  the  great  words  are  cited,  "  Believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,"  how  often,  although  this 
language  is  biblical,  does  it  fail  to  convey  the  mean- 
ing it  always  contains,  of  the  necessity  of  affectionate 
self-commitment  of  the  soul  to  God,  or  of  rejoicing 
personal  loyalty  to  him  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord  ? 
Coleridge  said,  "  I  believe  Plato  and  Aristotle :  I 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ"  (^Table  Conversations}.  To 
believe  in  a  person  implies  admiration  of  that  per- 
son's character,  and  naturally  results  in  confidence, 
gladness,  pride,  and  alacrity  in  following  his  lead. 

If  in  this  sense  you  believe  in  God  in  Christ,  you 
accept  him  loyally  as  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  or 
as  both  Saviour  and  Lord,  'and  you  are  learning  to 
love  what  he  loves,  and  to  hate  what  he  hates ;  and 
the  nature  of  things  will  no  longer  be  against  you. 
But  until  you  not  only  believe,  but  believe  on  and 
believe  in,  and  thus  affectionately  choose,  God  as 
both  Saviour  and  Lord,  of  course,  there  is  no  safety 
for  you,  for  there  cannot  be  any  similarity  of  feeling 
between  you  and  God.  When  you  come  to  believe 
in  him,  that  means  that  you  love  him,  and  that  you 
are  ready  to  obey  him,  not  slavishly,  but  with 
delight.  I  believe  in  Lincoln ;  I  believe  in  Wash- 
ington :  and  therefore  I  am  ready  to  have  them  for 
my  guides,  I  am  proud  and  glad  to  follow  wldther- 


142  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

soever  they  lead.  If  we  are  to  be  Christians  in  a 
similar  sense,  we  are  to  believe  in  God  not  only  as 
Lord,  but  also  as  Saviour. 

Shall  we  look  on  God  chiefly  as  Saviour,  or  chiefly 
as  Lord  ?  Which  of  these  infinities  shall  we  gaze  on 
first,  if  by  the  gaze  the  soul  is  to  be  transformed  into 
the  Divine  image  ? 

Two  things  are  meant  by  the  one  word  "  guilt :  " 
first,  demerit  or  blameworthiness ;  secondly,  obliga- 
tion to  suffer  the  punishment  due  to  our  offences. 
Revelation  teaches  that  Christ  our  Lord  had  laid  on 
him  our  guilt  in  the  latter  sense,  but  not  in  the  for- 
mer. He  assumed  the  obligation  to  satisfy  the  de- 
mands of  justice  on  our  part ;  he  did  not  assume  the 
demerit  or  blameworthiness  of  our  transgressions 
(Hodge,  Systematic  Theology^  vol.  ii.  p.  189).  In  the 
nature  of  things,  demerit  cannot  be  transferred  from 
person  to  person.  Ill-desert  rests  on  the  transgressor 
forever.  A  criminal  who  has  served  out  his  legal 
term  in  prison  is  freed  from  all  further  ohligation  to 
suffer  the  punishment  of  the  law ;  but  he  is  not  free 
from  the  demerit  of  having  been  a  criminal.  He  is 
delivered  from  guilt  in  the  second  sense,  but  not 
from  guilt  in  the  first  sense  of  the  word.  A  man 
who  has  been  a  deserter  comes  back  to  his  king, 
and  should  receive  a  thousand  stripes.  His  king 
takes  a  hundred  in  his  place,  and  that  chastisement 
13,  substituted  for  the  deserter's  punishment.  The 
deserter's  demerit  remains;  in  the  nature  of  things, 
his  king  could  not  assume  that.  Forever  and  for- 
ever it  will  be  true  that  the  man  has  behind  him  the 


FEsAL   rERMANENCE  OF  MORAL  CHARACTER.   143 

record  of  a  deserter.  Even  Omnipotence  cannot 
make  "what  once  has  been  not  to  have  been.  But, 
forever  and  forever  the  deserter's  debt  to  the  law 
is  paid,  and  its  pajment  cannot  be  demanded  of  the 
deserter.  If,  nou\  that  deserter  tvishes  motives  to  loy- 
alty, what  ought  he  to  keep  vividly  before  his  thoughts? 
his  Lord's  power,  or  liis  Lord's  unspeakable  con- 
descension? his  Lord  as  his  King,  or  his  Lord  as 
his  Redeemer  ?  All  hearts  that  understand  it,  tliis 
question  melts  in  this  age  as  it  has  in  every  past 
age,  and  will  in  every  future  age.  Let  the  deserter 
remember  his  own  irremovable  demerit ;  let  him  fill 
his  soul  with  thoughts  of  his  King  as  liis  Redeemer. 

What  am  I  saying?  Look  on  what  God  has  done : 
look  on  what  God  is.  In  the  old  and  majestic  lan- 
guage, of  a  depth  unfathomable :  "  Look  on  the 
Cross,"  and  you  will  lose  the  desire  to  sin.  You  will 
find  departing  from  every  pulse  of  your  soul  all  hate 
of  what  God  loves,  and  all  love  of  what  God  hates. 
Look  first  on  God  as  Saviour,  and  you  shall  learn  to 
choose  him  affectionately  as  Lord.  Now,  now,  noiv, 
behold  and  trust  him  as  your  Redeemer,  and  take  him 
gladly  as  King.  Tliis  is  a  direction  which  a  man 
cannot  die  following,  and  die  without  deliverance 
from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  fear  of  its  penalties. 
So  long  as  you  fail  to  choose  God  affectionately  as 
both  Saviour  and  Lord,  so  long  your  love  of  sin,  and 
fear  of  its  penalties,  will  continue  ;  and  so  long  in  the 
nature  of  things  —  a  terrible  authority  !  —  you  can- 
not enter  into  peace.  When  you  have  accepted  God 
gladly  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord,  you,  as  a  returned 


144  TBANSCENDENTALISM. 

deserter,  can  have  peace,   not  5y,  but  not  without^ 
facing  the  foe.     [Applause.] 

THE   LECTUKE. 

When  Charles  IX.  of  France  was  importuned  to 
kill  Coligny,  he  for  a  long  time  refused  to  do  so  pub- 
licly or  secretly ;  but  at  last  he  gave  way,  and  con- 
sented in  these  ,  memorable  words  :  "  Assassinate 
Admiral  Coligny,  but  leave  not  a  Huguenot  alive  in 
France  to  reproach  me."  So  came  the  Massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew.  When  the  soul  resolves  to  assassi- 
nate some  holy  motive ;  when  the  spirit  determines 
to  kill,  in  the  inner  realm.  Admiral  Coligny,  it,"  too, 
delays  for  a  while ;  and,  when  it  gives  way  usually 
says,  "Assassinate  this  accuser  of  mine,  but  leave 
not  an  accusing  accomplice  of  his  in  all  my  kingdom 
alive  to  reproach  me."  So  comes  the  massacre  of  the 
desire  to  be  holy. 

Emerson  quotes  the  Welsh  Triad  as  saying,  "  God 
himself  cannot  procure  good  for  the  wicked."  Julius 
Miiller,  Dorner,  Rothe,  Schleiermacher,  no  less  than 
Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Socrates,  assert,  that,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  there  can  be  no  blessedness  without 
holiness.  Confucius  said,  "  Heaven  means  princi- 
ple." But  what  if  a  soul  permanently  loses  princi- 
ple? Si  vis  fug  ere  a  Deo  fug  c  ad  Deum,  is  the  Latin 
proverb.  If  you  wish  to  flee  from  God,  flee  to  him. 
The  soul  cannot  escape  from  God;  and  can  two 
walk  together  unless  they  are  agreed  ?  Surely  there 
are  a  few  certainties  in  religion,  or  several  points 
clear  to  exact  ethical  science  in  relation  to  the  natu- 
ral conditions  of  the  peace  of  the  soul. 


FINAL   rEn.MANENCE   OF   MOKAL   CHARACTEK.   145 

It  is  plainly  possible  that  a  man  may  fall  into  free 
permanent  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God,  or  fail 
to  attain  a  predominant  desire  to  be  holy. 

If  he  does,  it  remains  scientifically  certain  that  even 
Omnipotence  and  Omniscience  cannot  force  upon 
such  a  character  blessedness.  There  can  be  no  bless- 
edness without  holiness  ;  and  there  can  be  lio  holiness 
without  a  supreme  love  of  what  God  loves,  and  a 
supreme  hate  of  what  God  hates.  It  is  possible  that 
a  man  may  so  disarrange  his  nature  as  not  to  attain  a 
permanent  and  predominant  desire  to  be  holy. 

Theodore  Parker,  as  his  biographers  admit,  must 
be  called  a  great  reader  rather  than  a  great  scholar. 
But  De  Wette,  his  German  master,  although  most 
of  his  works  have  ceased  to  be  authorities  in  biblical 
research,  ought  to  have  prevented  Theodore  Parker 
from  asserting  that  the  Founder  of  Christianity  did 
not  teach  that  there  may  be  a  failure  in  a  free  agent 
to  attain  a  permanent  and  predominant  desire  to  be 
holy.  Theodore  Parker  himself  ought  to  have  pre- 
vented himself  from  that  assertion.  In  his  earlier 
career  he  held  that  our  Lord  did  teach  a  possibility 
of  the  failure  of  some  forever  and  forever  to  attain 
a  supreme  love  of  what  God  loves,  and  a  supreme 
hate  of  what  God  hates.  He  thought  that  the  New 
Testament,  properly  interpreted,  does  contain  in  it  a 
statement  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  fail  perma- 
nently to  attain  the  predominant  desire  to  be  holy ; 
and  this  was  one  of  Parker's  reasons  for  rejecting 
the  authority  of  the  New  Testament.  Put  toward 
the  end  of  his  career  he  tried  to  persuade  Frances 


146  TEAlSrSCENDENTALISM. 

Power  Cobbe  that  the  Founder  of  Christianity  did 
not  teach  that  any  will  be  lost.  Parker's  writings 
are  self-contradictory  on  this  supreme  topic,  most  of 
the  real  difficulties  of  which  he  skipped. 

It  is  the  wisdom  of  all  science,  however,  never  to 
skip  difficulties.  I  know  how  widely  intellectual  un- 
rest on  the  topic  I  am  now  introducing  fills  minds 
that  never  have  been  much  troubled  by  Theodore 
Parker.  I  know  that  many  conscientious  and  learned 
persons  have  asked  themselves  the  question  the  dis- 
ciples once  asked  our  Lord :  "  Are  there  few  that 
be  saved  ?  "  He  answered  that  inquiry  very  distinct- 
ly, "  Yes,  there  are  few."  Does  science  answer  in 
the  same  way  ? 

It  would  not  follow,  my  friends,  even  if  you  were 
to  take  our  Lord's  answer  as  supreme  authority,  as  I 
do,  that  this  universe  is  a  failure.  All  ages  to  come 
are  to  be  kept  in  view ;  all  other  worlds.  Our  Lord's 
words  referred  to  our  present  evil  generation ;  and, 
if  you  ask  the  central  question  in  the  best  modern 
form,  you  must  answer  it  in  his  way.  How  many,  in 
the  present  state  of  ouy  earth,  love  predominantly 
what  God  loves,  and  hate  predominantly  what  God 
hates  ?  How  many  have  acquired  predominant  simi- 
larity of  feeling  with  God?  Only  those  who  have 
can  be  at  peace  in  liis  presence,  either  here  or  here- 
after. That  is  as  certain  as  any  deduction  from  our 
intuitions  concerning  the  nature  of  things.  As  sure 
as  that  a  thing  cannot  be  and  not  be  at  the  same 
time,  in  the  same  sense,  so  sure  is  it  that  a  man  cannot 
be  at  peace  with  God  when  he  loves  what  he  hates, 


FINAL  PERMAXENCE  OP  MOEAL  CHARACTER.    147 

and  hates  what  he  loves.  There  must  be  harmony 
or  dissonance  between  them ;  and  dissonance  is  its 
own  punishment.  Dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God 
carries  with  it  immense  wages,  in  the  nature  of  things. 
In  the  name  of  science  ask,  Are  there  few  that  have 
acquired  a  predominant  love  of  what  God  loves,  and 
a  predommant  hate  of  what  God  hates?  We  must 
answer,  in  the  name  of  science,  that  broad  is  the  way 
and  wide  is  the  gate,  which,  in  our  evil  generation, 
leads  to  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God ;  and  many 
there  be  who  go  in  thereat:  but  strait  is  the  way 
and  narrow  is  the  gate  which  leads  to  similarity  of 
feeling  with  God ;  and  few  are  they  in  our  time  that 
find  it.  But  there  are  other  worlds ;  there  are  other 
ages.  "  Save  j'ourselves  from  this  untoward  genera- 
tion." "Who  knows,  that,  in  the  final  summing-up,  the 
number  of  the  lost  may  be  greater  than  that  of  the 
saved  ?  or,  as  Lyman  Beecher  used  to  say  in  this  city, 
"  greater  than  the  number  of  our  criminals  in  penal 
institutions  is  in  contrast  with  the  whole  of  the  pop- 
ulation." But  I  talk  of  the  galaxies :  I  talk  of  the 
infinities  and  of  the  eternities,  and  not  merely  of 
this  world  in  wliich  you  and  I  are  to  work  out  our 
deliverance  from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  sin, 
and  have  reason  to  do  so  with  fear  and  tremblinsr. 

I  ask  no  man  here  to-day,  or  any  day,  to  take  my 
opinions.  You  are  requested  to  notice  whether  dis- 
cussion is  clear,  not  whether  it  is  orthodox.  Let  us 
put  aside  entirely  all  ecclesiastical  and  denomina- 
tional tests.  This  Lectureship  has  for  its  purpose 
simply  the  discussion  of  the  clear,  the  true,  the  new. 


148  TEAJSrSCENDENTALISM. 

and  the  strategic,  in  tlie  relations  between  science 
and  religion. 

What  are  some  of  the  more  important  natural  laws 
which  enable  us  to  estimate  scientifically  the  possible 
extent  of  the  natural  penalties  of  sin  ? 

1.  Under  irreversible  natural  law  sin  produces 
judicial  blindness. 

Kill  Admiral  Colign}'",  drive  out  the  Huguenots, 
permit  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  you 
have  made  a  new  France.  Carlyle  says  that  it  pleased 
France  to  slit  her  own  veins  and  let  out  the  best 
blood  she  had,  and  that  she  did  this  on  the  night  of 
the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew;  and  that,  after 
that,  she  was  historically  another  creature.  Having 
killed  Coligny,  you  cannot  look  his  friends  in  the 
face  ;  you  kill  them,  and  your  kingdom  is  a  new  one. 
When  a  man  sins  against  light,  there  comes  upon  him 
an  unwillingness  to  look  into  the  accusing  illumina- 
tion ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that  he  turns  away 
from  it.  But  that  effect  itself  becomes  a  cause.  Keep 
your  eyes  upon  your  Shakspeare,  uj)on  your  Greek 
poets,  or  upon  whatever  is  a  good  mirror  of  human 
nature,  and  tell  me  whether  these  six  propositions 
are  not  all  scientifically  demonstrable  :  — 

(1.)  Truth  possessed,  but  not  obeyed,  becomes 
unwelcome. 

(2.)  It  is  therefore  shut  out  of  the  voluntary  acti- 
vities of  memory  and  reflection,  as  it  gives  pain. 

(3.)  The  passions  it  should  check  grow,  therefore, 
stronger. 

(4.)  The  moral  emotions  it  should  feed  grow 
weaker. 


FINAL   PERMANEXCE  OF  MOEAL  CHARACTER.   149 

(5.)  An  ill-balanced  state  of  tlie  soul  thus  arises, 
and  tends  to  become  habitual. 

(6.)  That  ill-balanced  state  renders  the  soul  blind 
to  the  truths  most  needed  to  rectify  its  condition. 

"  On  the  temperate  man,"  says  Aristotle  (^lihetoric, 
Bohn's  edition,  p.  70),  "  are  attendant,  perhaps  forth- 
with, by  motion  of  his  temperance,  good  opinions 
and  appetites  as  to  pleasures  ;  but,  on  the  intemper- 
ate, the  opposite." 

A  man  sins  against  liglit  boldly.  To  the  divine  "  I 
ought,"  he  answers  "  I  will  not ;  "  to  the  divine  "  Thou 
shalt "  or  "  Thou  oughtest,"  he  replies  "  I  will  not." 
The  consequence  instantly  is,  that  he  ceases  to  be  at 
peace  with  himself;  and  light,  instead  of  becoming  a 
blessing,  is  to  him  an  accusation.  The  slant  javelin 
of  truth,  that  was  intended  to  penetrate  him  with 
rapture,  fills  him  now  with  torture.  If  we  give  our- 
selves to  an  exact  study  of  the  soul's  pains  and  pleas- 
ures, we  shall  find  in  man  no  greater  bliss  than  con- 
science can  afford,  and  no  greater  pain  than  it  can 
inflict.  In  this  stage  of  existence,  the  highest  bliss 
comes  from  similarity  of  feeling  with  God,  and  the 
highest  pain  from  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  him. 
The  greatest  pains  and  pleasures,  therefore,  are  set 
over  against  our  greatest  duties ;  and  so  God's  desire 
that  we  should  agree  with  him  is  shown  by  our 
living  under  the  piercing  points  of  all  these  penalties 
and  blisses.  But,  light  having  become  an  accuser, 
man  turns  away  from  it.  Then  the  virtues  which 
that  light  ought  to  quicken  are  allowed  to  languish. 
The  vices  which  that  light   ought  to  repress  grow 


150  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

more  vigorous.  Repeated  acts  of  sin  result  in  a  con- 
tinued state  of  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God. 
That  state  is  an  effect;  but  it  becomes  a  cause. 
According  to  New-England  theology,  sin  exists  only 
in  acts  of  choice;  but  the  newest  school  of  that 
theology  need  have  no  war  with  the  oldest,  for  the 
former  recognizes  as  fully  as  the  latter  can,  that  the 
state  of  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God  is  the  source 
of  the  evil  acts  of  choice.  That  state  of  the  disposi- 
tions is  the  copious  fountain  of  sin,  and  as  such  is 
properly  called  depravity.  This  state,  continuing, 
becomes  a  habit;  then  that  habit,  continuing  long, 
becomes  chronic  ;  and  so  the  result  is  an  ill-balanced 
growth  of  the  character. 

When  I  hung  my  hammock  up  last  summer  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  George,  I  noticed  that  the  trees 
nearest  the  light,  at  the  edge  of  the  forest,  had  larger 
branches  than  those  in  the  interior  of  the  wood ;  and 
the  same  tree  would  throw  out  a  long  branch  toward 
the  light,  and  a  short  one  toward  obscurity  in  the 
interior  of  the  forest.  Just  so  a  man  grows  toward 
the  light  to  which  he  turns.  According  to  the 
direction  in  which  he  turns  with  his  supreme  affection, 
he  grows  ;  and  as  he  grows  he  balances  ;  and  under 
the  irreversible  natural  law  of  moral  gravitation,  — 
as  fixed,  as  scientific  a  certainty  in  the  universe  as 
the  law  of  physical  gravitation,  —  as  he  balances,  so 
he  falls ;  and,  according  to  science,  after  a  tree  has 
fallen  under  that  law,  the  prostrate  trunk  continues 
to  be  under  the  law ;  and,  therefore,  as  it  falls  so  it 
lies. 


FINAL   PERMANENCE  OF  MORAL  CHARACTER.   151 

Under  moral  gravitation  no  less  surely  than  under 
physical,  every  free  object  that  falls  out  of  the  sky 
strikes  on  its  heavier  side.  They  showed  nie  at 
Amherst,  the  other  day,  a  meteorite  that  dropped  out 
of  the  azure  ;  and  it  struck  on  which  side  ?  Of 
course,  on  its  heavier.  As  the  stream  runs,  so  it 
wears  its  channel ;  as  it  wears  its  channel,  so  it  runs. 
All  the  mythologies  of  the  globe  recognize  this 
fearful  law  of  judicial  blindness. 

Go  yonder  into  Greenland  with  the  learned  travel- 
ler Ranke,  and  you  will  find  a  story  among  the  men 
of  the  lonely  North,  to  the  effect,  that  if  a  sorcerer 
will  make  a  stirrup  out  of  a  strip  of  seal-skin,  and 
wind  it  around  his  limbs,  three  times  about  his  heart, 
and  tin-ice  about  his  neck,  and  seven  times  about  his 
forehead,  and  then  loiot  it  before  his  eyes,  that  sor- 
cerer, when  the  lamps  are  put  out  at  night,  may  rise 
into  space,  and  fly  whithersoever  his  leading  passion 
dictates.  So  we  put  ourselves  into  the  stirrup  of 
predominant  love  of  what  God  hates,  and  predomi- 
nant hate  of  what  God  loves,  and  we  coil  the  strands 
about  our  souls.  They  are  thrice  wound  about  our 
heart,  three  times  around  the  neck,  seven  times 
around  our  foreheads,  and  knotted  before  our  eyes. 
If  the  poor  savages  yonder,  where  the  stars  look 
down  four  months  of  the  year  without  interruption, 
are  right  in  their  sublime  theory  as  to  the  solemnities 
of  the  universe,  we,  too,  when  the  lamps  are  out,  shall 
rise  into  the  Unseen  Holy,  and  fly  whithersoever 
our  leading  passion  dictates. 

Greenland  says  that  hunters  once  went  out,  and 


152  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

found  a  revolving  mountain,  and  that,  attempting  to 
cross  the  chasm  between  it  and  the  firm  land,  some 
of  these  men  were  crushed  as  the  mountain  revolved. 
But  they  finally  noticed  that  the  gnarled,  wheeling 
mass  had  a  red  side  and  a  white  side.  They  waited 
till  the  white  side  came  opposite  them,  and  then, 
ascending  the  mountain,  found  that  a  king  lived  on 
its  summit,  made  themselves  loyal  to  him,  surren- 
dered themselves  to  him  affectionately  and  irreversi- 
bly, and  afterwards  found  themselves  able  to  go  and 
come  safely.  But  the  mountain  had  a  red  side  ;  and 
it  turned  and  turned,  and  there  was  no  safety  on  it, 
except  on  the  white  side  and  in  loyalty  to  the  king 
at  the  summit  in  the  clouds.  That  mythology  of  the 
North,  lately  read  for  us  by  scholars,  has  in  it  eternal 
verity,  and  a  land  of  solemnity  like  that  of  the  long 
shining  of  the  Arctic  stars,  and  the  tumbling  ice- 
bergs, and  the  peaceable  gurgle  of  the  slow-heaving 
Polar  Ocean,  far-gleaming  under  the  Boreal  Lights 
or  the  midnight  Arctic  sun.  Stunted,  you  think, 
the  men  of  that  zone  ?  Why,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Charles  yonder,  your  Longfellow,  taking  up  a  Ger- 
man poet,  finds  the  same  idea  in  far  less  sublime  and 
subtle  imagery,  and  translates  it  for  its  majesty  and 

truth : 

"  The  mills  of  God  griiicl  slowly; 
But  they  grind  exceeding  small." 

To  me  there  is  in  IMacbeth  nothing  so  terrible  as 
Lady  Macbeth's  invocation  of  the  spirits  which  pro- 
duce  moral   callousness  in   the  soul.     There   is   no 


FINAL  PERMAISTENCE  OF  MORAL  CHARACTER,   153 

passage  in  that  sublime  treatise  on  conscience  -which 
we  call  ^Macbeth,  so  sublime  to  me  as  this,  on  the 
law  of  judicial  blindness  : 

*'  The  raven  himself  is  hoarse 
That  croaks  the  fatal  entrance  of  Duncan 
Under  my  battlements.     Come,  you  spirits. 

Unsex  me  here, 
And  fill  me,  from  the  crown  to  the  toe,  topful 
Of  dii'est  cruelty!     Make  thick  my  blood, 
Stop  up  the  access  and  passage  to  remorse. 

Come,  thick  night, 
And  pall  thee  in  the  dunnest  smoke  of  hell. 
That  iiay  keen  knife  see  not  the  wound  it  makes, 
Nor  heaven  peep  through  the  blanket  of  the  dark, 
To  cry,  '  Hold,  hold!  '" 

Macbeth,  act  i.  sc.  5. 

That  invocation  is  likely  to  be  uttered  by  every 
soul  whieli  has  said  "  I  will  not "  to  the  divine  "  I 
ought."  It  is  as  sure  to  be  answered  as  natural  law 
is  to  be  ii-reversible.     Macbeth  liimself,  in  a  similar 

mood,  says : 

"  Come,  seeling  night, 
Scarf  up  the  tender  eye  of  pitiful  day ; 
Cancel  and  tear  to  pieces  that  gi'eat  bond 
Wliich  keeps  me  pale !     Light  thickens ;  and  the  crow 
Makes  wing  to  the  rooky  wood." 

Macbeth,  act  iii.  sc.  2. 

Have  you  ever  offered  in  the  rooky  wood  of  sor- 
cerous  temptation  a  prayer  for  blindness  ?  In  the 
nature  of  tilings  every  sin  against  light  dratvs  blood  on 
the  spiritual  retina. 

You  say  that  after  death  you  are  to  have  more  illu- 


154  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

mination,  and  tliat  therefore  you  will  reform  beyond 
tL.e  grave.  How  do  you  know  that  you  will  see 
greater  illumination,  even  if  you  are  in  the  presence 
of  it  ?  How  do  you  know  that  you  will  love  it,  even 
if  you  do  see  it  ?  There  can  be  no  blessedness  with- 
out holiness  ;  there  can  be  no  holiness  without  a  free, 
affectionate  acknowledgment  of  God  as  King,  or  a 
supreme  love  of  what  he  loves,  and  hate  of  what  he 
hates.  Are  you  likely  to  obtain  these  soon  under 
the  law  of  judicial  blindness  ?  You  will  have  what 
you  like ;  but  do  you  like  the  light  ?  You  have 
more  and  more  illumination  now  as  the  years  pass. 
Do  you  see  it  ?  Do  you  love  it  ?  There  are  two 
questions  about  this  greater  light  beyond  the  grave : 
first.  Will  you  see  it?  second,  AVill  you  like  it? 
Unless  you  have  authority  in  the  name  of  science  for 
answering  both  these  questions  in  the  affirmative, 
you  have  no  right  in  the  name  of  science  to  rely  on 
a  mere  possibility,  on  a  guess,  and  take  your  leap 
into  the  Unseen,  depending  on  a  riddle.  I  for  one 
will  not  do  this  for  myself;  and  I  will  not  teach 
others  to  do  so.     [Applause.] 

Shakspeare  has  not  left  us  in  doubt  at  all  on  this 
theme  ;  for  in  another  place  he  says,  — 


*'  But  when  we  in  our  viciousness  grow  hard, 
The  wise  gods  seal  our  eyes  ; 

In  our  own  slime  drop  oiu*  clear  judgments,  make  us 
Adore  om"  errors  ;  laugh  at  us  whUe  we  strut 
To  our  confusion. " 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  act  iii.  sc.  13. 


FINAL   PERMANENCE   OF.  MORAL   CHARACTER.   155 

Carlyle  quotes  out  of  tlie  Koran  a  story  of  tlie 
dwellers  by  the  Dead  Sea,  to  whom  Moses  was  sent. 
They  sniffed  and  sneered  at  IMoses ;  saw  no  comeli- 
ness in  Moses  ;  and  so  he  withdrew :  but  Nature  and 
her  rififorous  veracities  did  not  withdraw.  When 
next  we  find  the  dwellers  by  the  Dead  Sea,  the}^ 
according  to  the  Koran,  are  all  changed  into  apes. 
"By  not  using  their  souls  they  lost  them.  And 
now,"  continues  Carlyle,  "  their  onl}'"  employment  is 
to  sit  there  and  look  out  into  the  smokiest,  dreariest, 
most  undecipherable  sort  of  universe  :  only  once  in 
seven  daj's  they  do  remember  that  they  once  had 
souls.  Hast  thou  never,  O  traveller  !  fallen  in  with 
parties  of  this  tribe  ?  Methinks  they  have  grown 
somewhat  numerous  in  our  day."     [Applause.] 

The  old  Greek  proverb  was,  that  the  avenging 
deities  are  shod  with  wool ;  but  the  wool  grows  on 
the  eyelids  that  refuse  the  light.  "  Whom  the  gods 
would  destroy  they  first  make  mad ;  "  but  the  in- 
sanity arises  from  judicial  blindness. 

Jeremy  Taylor  says  that  whoever  sins  against  light 
kisses  the  lips  of  a  blazing  cannon. 

I  never  saw  a  dare-devil  face  that  had  not  in  it 
something  of  both  the  sneak  and  the  fool.  The 
sorcery  of  sin  is,  that  it  changes  a  man  into  a  sneak 
and  a  fool ;  but  the  fool  does  not  know  that  he  is  a 
sneak,  and  tlie  sneak  does  not  know  that  he  is  a  fool. 

If  I  were  a  sculptor,  I  should  represent  sin  with 
two  faces,  like  those  of  Janus,  looking  in  opposite 
directions :  one  should  be  idiotic,  the  other  Machia- 
vellian.    But  the  one  face  would  not  see  the  other. 


156  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

The  idiot  would  not  know  lie  is  Machiavellian ; 
the  Machiavelli  would  not  know  that  he  is  idiotic. 
The  sneak  would  not  know  that  he  is  a  fool,  nor  the 
fool  that  he  is  a  sneak. 

2.  Under  irreversible  natural  law,  there  is  a  self- 
propagating  power  in  sin. 

Of  course,  this  self-propagating  power  depends 
upon  the  law  of  judicial  blindness  very  largel}^  but 
by  no  means  exclusively.  So  are  we  made,  that  every 
effect  in  the  growth  of  our  characters  becomes  a 
cause,  and  every  good  effect  no  less  than  every  bad 
one. 

The  laws  of  the  self-propagating  power  of  habit 
bless  the  righteous  as  much  as  they  curse  the  wicked. 
The  laws  by  which  we  attain  supreme  bliss  are  the 
laws  by  which  we  descend  to  supreme  woe.  In  the 
ladder  up  and  the  ladder  down  in  the  universe, 
the  rungs  are  in  the  same  side-pieces.  The  self-pro- 
pagating power  of  sin  and  the  self-propagating  power 
of  holiness  are  one  law.  The  law  of  judicial  blind- 
ness is  one  with  that  by  which  the  pure  in  heart  see 
God ;  and  they  who  walk  toward  the  east  find  the 
morning  brighter  and  brighter  to  the  perfect  day. 

Of  course,  I  shall  offend  many,  if  I  assert  that  there 
may  be  penalty  that  has  no  remedial  tendency.  But, 
gentlemen,  I  ask  you  to  be  clear,  and  to  remember 
that  an  unwelcome  truth  is  really  not  destroyed  by 
shutting  the  eyes  to  it.  There  are  three  kinds  of 
natural  laws,  —  the  physical,  the  organic,  and  the 
moral.  I  affirm  that  ^^  Never  too  late  to  mend''''  is  not  a 
doctrine  of  science  in  the  doynain  of  the  physical  lawsy 
nor  is  it  in  that  of  the  organic. 


FINAL   PERMANENCE   OE  MORAL  CHARACTER.   157 

Under  the  physical  laws  of  gravitation  a  ship  may 
careen  to  the  right  or  left,  and  only  a  remedial  effect 
be  produced.  The  danger  may  teach  the  crew  sea- 
manship; it  makes  men  bold  and  wise.  Thus  the 
penalty  of  violating,  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  physi- 
cal law,  is  remedial  in  its  tendency.  But  let  the  ship 
careen  beyond  a  certain  line,  and  it  capsizes.  If  it  be 
of  iron,  it  remains  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea ;  and  hun- 
dreds and  liundreds  of  years  of  suffering  of  that  pen- 
alty has  no  tendency  to  bring  it  back.  Under  the 
physical  natural  laws,  plainly  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
its  being  too  late  to  mend.  In  their  immeasurable 
domain  there  is  a  distinction  between  penalty  that 
has  a  remedial  tendency,  and  penalty  that  has  no 
remedial  tendency  at  all. 

So,  under  the  organic  law,  your  tropical  tree, 
gashed  at  a  certain  point,  may  throw  forth  its  gums, 
and  even  have  greater  strength  than  before ;  Ijut 
gashed  beyond  the  centre,  cut  through,  the  organic 
law  is  so  far  violated,  that  the  tree  falls ;  and  after 
a  thousand  years  you  do  not  expect  to  see  the  tree 
escape  from  the  dominion  of  the  law  which  is  enfor- 
cing upon  it  penalty,  do  you  ?  There  is  no  tendency 
in  that  penalty  toward  remedial  effect ;  none  at  all ; 
and  you  know  it.  Therefore,  under  the  organic  laws, 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  its  being  too  late  tomend. 

Now,  gentlemen,  keep  your  eyes  fastened  upon  the 
great  principle  of  analogy,  which  Newton  and  Butler 
call  the  supreme  rule  in  science,  and  ask  yourselves 
whether,  if  you  were  to  find  some  strange  animal  in 
a  geological  stratum,  and  if  you  were  to  know,  by 


158  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

having  one  of  its  hands  free,  that  it  had  three  fingers, 
and  if  you  were  to  find  two  fingers  on  the  other  hand 
free  from  the  rock,  and  botli  sliutting  toward  the 
palm,  you  would  not  infer  that  the  third  finger,  if 
you  could  loosen  it  from  the  rock,  would  also  be 
found  closing  toward  the  palm  ?  Just  so,  I  ask, 
whether,  if  we  find,  that,  under  two  sets  of  natural 
laws  which  are  all  included  under  three  classes,  there 
is  incontrovertibly  such  a  thing  as  penalty  without 
remedial  effect,  may  there  not  be  the  same  under  the 
third  set?  Two  fingers  shut  towards  the  palm.  I 
cannot  quite  trace  the  whole  range  of  the  moral  law ; 
but  I  know  by  analogy,  that,  if  two  fingers  shut  to- 
wards the  palm,  the  third  probably  does.  If  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  its  being  forever  too  late  to  mend  under 
the  organic  and  the  physical  natural  law,  probably,  and 
more  than  2^'fobably,  there  is  such  a  thing  under  the 
moral  natural  law.     [Applause.] 

Yes;  but  you  say  the  will  is  free,  and  there- 
fore that  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  a  man  will  fall 
into  final  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God,  or  can 
so  lose  the  desire  to  be  holy,  that  he  will  not  choose 
the  right  when  greater  light  comes.  You  affirm  that 
the  self-propagating  power  of  sin  may  place  necessity 
upon  the  disordered  nature.  You  say  that  the  denial 
that  all  moral  penalty  is  remedial  Requires  us  to 
deny  that  the  will  of  lost  souls  continues  free.  I  beg 
your  pardon  again,  and  that  in  the  name  of  science. 
Gentlemen,  there  may  be  certainty  where  there  is  no 
necessity. 

Is  John  Milton  putting  together  a  self-contradiction 


FINAL  PERMANENCE   OF   MORAL   CHARACTER.    159 

when  he  pictures  Satan  as  making  evil  his  good,  and 
as  yet  retaining  a  free  will?  Is  he  uttering  self- 
contradiction  when  he  shows  us  a  fiendish  character 
which  retains  j-et  some  elements  of  its  original  bright- 
ness ?  Has  Milton's  Satan  lost  free  will  ?  I  affirm 
that  you  know  that  John  Milton's  Satan  is  not  an 
impossible  character.  You  say  you  do  not  care 
what  Milton  says ;  but  I  am  not  asking  you  to  accept 
his  theology.  Let  me  not  be  misunderstood  in  my 
citations  of  the  poets  as  witnesses  to  what  man  is. 
Paradise  Lost  is  a  great  classic ;  and  no  poem  attains 
that  rank  if  it  is  full  of  manifest  absurdities.  Now, 
INIilton's  Satan  is  a  character  in  which  the  disarrange- 
ment of  the  soul  is  supposed  to  have  become  perma- 
nent ;  he  has  fallen  into  final  permanence  of  evil 
character ;  and  yet  he  is  represented  as  absolutely 
free,  and  not  very  near  annihilation.  I  appeal  to 
classical  literature  to  show  that  a  permanent  evil 
character  with  a  free  will  is  not  a  psychological  self- 
contradiction.  You  admit  this  readily,  age  after  age, 
in  your  great  classics ;  but  the  instant  I  here,  stand- 
ing face  to  face  with  natural  religion,  assert  that 
there  may  be  a  final  permanence  of  free  character, 
bad  as  well  as  good,  and  good  as  well  as  bad,  you 
stand  aghast  at  your  own  proceeding.  Gentlemen, 
you  and  I  must  have  no  cross-purposes  with  the 
nature  of  things.  If  Milton's  description  is  not  a 
psychological  self-contradiction,  there  may  be  a  per- 
son of  permanently  bad  character,  absolutely  free, 
and  therefore  responsible.     [Applause.] 

Origen  used   to  teach  that   the   prince   of  fiends 


160  TEANSCENDENTALTSM. 

might  return  to  a  glad  allegiance  to  God ;  and  so  did 
Robert  Burns,  whom  Emerson  commends  for  using 
these  words,  originally  written  to  attack  the  proposi- 
tion I  am  now  defending,  but,  after  all,  contaming 
most  subtle  confirmation  of  it : 

"  Auld  Nickie  Ben, 
An'  wad  ye  tak  a  thought  and  men', 
Ye  aiblins  might  —  I  dinna  ken  — 
Still  hae  a  stake." 

No,  gentlemen  ;  the  self-propagating  power  of  sin 
may  produce  a  state  of  soul  in  which  evil  is  chosen 
as  good,  and  in  which  it  is  forever  too  late  to  mend, 
and  yet  not  destroy  free  will. 

3.  Under  irrevevsihle  natural  law  character  tends  to 
a  final  permanence^  good  or  had.  In  the  nature  of  the 
case,  a  final  permanence  is  attained  but  once. 

If  asked  whether  final  permanence  of  character  is 
a  natural  law,  what  should  you  say,  if  we  were  to 
speak  without  reference  to  conclusions  in  religious 
science  ?  How  have  men  in  all  ages  expressed  them- 
selves in  literature  and  philosophy  on  this  theme? 
Is  it  not  perfectly  certain  that  all  the  great  writers 
of  the  world  justify  the  proposition  that  character 
tends  to  a  final  permanence,  good  or  bad? 

Gentlemen,  this  universe  up  to  the  edge  of  the 
tomb  is  not  a  joke.  There  are  in  this  life  serious  dif- 
ferences between  the  right  hand  and  the  left.  Never- 
theless, in  our  present  career,  a  man  has  but  one 
chance.  Even  if  you  come  weighted  into  the  world, 
as  Sindbad  was  with  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  you 


FINAL   rERMAXENCE   OF  MORAL   CHARACTER.   IGl 

have  but  one  chance.  Time  does  not  fly  in  a 
circle,  but  forth,  and  right  on.  The  wandering, 
squandering,  desiccated  moral  leper  is  gifted  with  no 
second  set  of  early  years.  There  is  no  fountain  in 
Florida  that  gives  perpetual  j^outh ;  and  the  universe 
might  be  searched,  probably,  in  vain  for  such  a 
spring.  "Waste  your  youth ;  in  it  you  shall  have  but 
one  chance.  Waste  your  middle  life  ;  in  it  you  shall 
have  but  one  chance.  Waste  your  old  age ;  in  it  j^ou 
shall  have  but  one  chance.  It  is  an  irreversible  nat- 
ural law  that  character  attains  final  permanence,  and 
in  the  nature  of  things  final  permanence  can  come  but 
once.  This  Avorld  is  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made, 
and  so  are  we,  and  we  shall  escape  neither  ourselves 
nor  these  stupendous  laws.  It  is  not  to  me  a  pleasant 
thing  to  exhibit  these  truths  from  the  side  of  terror ; 
but,  on  the  other  side,  these  are  the  truths  of  bliss ; 
for,  by  this  very  law  through  which  all  character  tends 
to  become  unchanging,  a  soul  that  attains  a  final  per- 
manence of  good  character  runs  but  one  risk,  and 
is  delivered  once  for  all  from  its  torture  and  un- 
rest. [Applause.]  It  has  passed  the  bourn  from 
behind  which  no  man  is  caught  out  of  the  fold.  He 
who  is  the  force  behind  all  natural  law  is  the  keeper 
of  his  sheep,  and  no  one  is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of 
his  hand.  Himself  without  variableness  or  shadow 
of  turning,  he  maintains  the  irreversibleness  of  all 
natural  forces,  one  of  which  is- the  insufferably  majes- 
tic law  by  which  character  tends  to  assume  final  per- 
manence, good,  as  well  as  bad. 

4.  Under  irreversible  natural  law  there  may  be  in 


162  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

the  soul  a  permanent  failure  to  attain  a  predominant 
and  enduring  desire  to  be  holy. 

With  incisive  scientific  clearness,  Julius  Miiller 
says,  "  Such  is  the  constitution  of  things  that  unwill- 
ingness to  goodness  may  ripen  into  eternal  voluntary 
opposition  to  it "  (^Doctrine  of  Sin,  vol.  ii.). 

The  inveteracy  of  sin !  have  you  ever  heard  of 
that  ?  Out  of  its  acknowledged  inveteracy  v^ill  not 
easily  arise  its  evanescence.  Out  of  its  prolongation 
comes  its  inveteracy,  and  out  of  its  inveteracy  may 
come  its  permanence. 

Here  and  now  I  do  not  touch  the  topic  of  the 
annihilation  of  those  who  fall  into  permanent  dissimi- 
larity of  feeling  with  God ;  for  I  do  not  see  that  this 
cause  produces  any  tendency  to  annihilation  in  this 
world,  when  a  man  becomes  incorrigibly  bad.  Vil- 
lains do  not  commonly  lack  force.  Your  Nero,  with 
his  murders  and  leprosies,  has  put  his  nature  out  of 
order ;  but  look  at  his  evil  face  in  marble  on  the 
Capitoline  Hill,  and  you  start  as  if  gazing  into  a 
demon's  eyes.  He  is  as  little  weak  as  a  volcano. 
What  do  men  mean  when  they  talk  of  vice  annihilat- 
ing souls  ?  It  disarranges  them ;  but  disarrange- 
ment is  not  annihilation.  Tacitus  says  that  Nero 
heard  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  and  groans  from  the 
grave  of  his  mother  Agrippina  whom  he  had  mur- 
dered. His  disarrangement  was  not  derangement. 
ActiDg  fitfully,  all  the  wheels  of  the  faculties  con- 
tinued to  exist  in  Nero ;  and  they  are  none  of  them 
without  movement.  They  grind  on  each  other,  no 
doubt ;  but  I  do  not  find  that  spiritual  wheels  can  be 


FINAL   PEEMAXENCE   OP  MORAL  CHAEACTErw   1G3 

pulverized.  Do  you  know  how  they  can  be  ?  This 
idea  that  evil  is  to  annihilate  us  ought  to  have  some 
distinctly  scientific  support  in  the  experience  of  this 
life. 

5.  Under  irreversible  natural  law  there  may  exist 
in  the  universe  eternal  sin. 

It  is  not  my  duty  here  to  expound  the  Scriptures; 
but  you  ^vill  allow  me  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  "  eternal 
sin"  is  a  scriptural  i^lirase.  As  all  these  scholars 
know,  we  must  read  iu  the  twenty-ninth  verse  of  the 
third  chapter  of  Mark,  Jiamartematos,  and  not  kriseos. 
He  who  sinneth  against  the  Holy  Ghost  is  in  danger 
of  "  eternal  s/n."  Theodore  Parker  used  to  say  that 
the  profoundest  expressions  in  the  New  Testament 
are  those  which  are  most  likely  to  have  been  cor- 
rectly reported.  AVhat  phrase  on  this  theme  is  pro- 
founder  than  "  eternal  sin  "  ?  Dean  Alford  well 
says,  that  "  it  is  to  the  critical  treatment  of  the  sacred 
text,  that  we  owe  the  restoration  of  such  important 
and  deep-reaching  expressions  as  this."  Lange  calls 
it  "  a  strong  and  pregnant  expression." 

It  is  not  the  best  way  in  which  to  teach  the  truth 
of  future  punishment,  to  say  that  a  man  is  punished 
forever  and  forever  for  the  sins  of  that  hand's- 
breadth  of  duration  we  call  time.  If  the  soul  does  not 
repent  of  these  with  contrition,  and  not  merely  with 
attrition,  the  nature  of  tilings  forbids  its  peace.  But 
the  Biblical  and  the  natural  truth  is,  that  prolonged 
dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God  may  end  in  eternal 
sin.  If  there  is  eternal  sin,  there  will  be  eternal  pun- 
ishment.    Final  permanence  of  character  under  the 


164  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

laws  of  judicial  blindness  and  the  self-propagating 
power  of  sin  is  the  truth  emphasized  by  both  God's 
word  and  his  works. 

6.  Under  irreversible  natural  law  there  can  be  no 
blessedness  without  holiness. 

Here  I  leave  you  face  to  face  with  the  nature  of 
things,  the  authority  which  dazzled  Socrates.  God's 
Omnipotence  cannot  force  blessedness  on  a  soul  that 
has  lost  the  predominant  desii*e  to  be  holy.  Omni- 
science cannot  make  happy  a  man  who  loves  what 
God  hates,  and  hates  what  God  loves.  If  you  fall 
into  predominant  dissimilarity  of  feeling  with  God, 
it  is  out  of  his  power  to  give  you  blessedness.  Un- 
doubtedly we  are,  of  all  men,  most  miserable,  unless, 
with  our  deliverance  from  the  guilt  of  sin,  there  comes 
to  us  also  deliverance  from  the  love  of  it.  Without 
holiness  there  can  be  no  blessedness ;  but  there  can 
be  no  holiness  without  a  predominant  love  of  what 
God  loves,  and  hate  of  what  God  hates.  We  grow 
wrong;  we  allow  ourselves  to  crystallize  in  habits 
that  imply  a  loss  of  the  desire  to  be  holy ;  and  at  last, 
having  made  up  our  minds  not  to  love  predomi- 
nantly what  God  loves,  and  hate  what  he  hates,  we 
are  amazed  that  we  have  not  blessedness.  But  the 
universe  is  not  amazed.  The  nature  of  things  is  but 
another  name  for  the  Divine  Nature.  God  would 
not  be  God  if  there  could  be  blessedness  without 
holiness.     [Applause.] 


vn. 

CAN  A  PErJECT  BEING  PERMIT  EVIL? 

THE    SIXTY-FIFTH    LECTURE     IN     THE     BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE   FEB.    12. 


"  Prope  est  a  te  Deus,  tecum  est,  intus  est !  ita  dico,  Lucili:  sacra 
inter  nos  spiritus  sedet,  malorum  bonominque  nostrormn  observator 
et  custos:  hie,  prout  a  nobis  tractatus  est,  ita  nos  ipse  tractat."  — 
Seneca. 


"Dieu  nous  veult  apprendre  que  les  bons  out  autre  chose  k 
esperer,  et  les  mauvais  autre  chose  a  craindre,  que  les  fortunes  ou 
infortunes  de  ce  monde."  — Montaigne. 


vn. 

CAN  A  PERFECT  BEING  PERMIT  EVIL? 

PRELUDE  ON   CURREXT  EVENTS. 

Before  landing  on  the  surly  Massachusetts  shore, 
our  fathers,  m  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  drew 
up  a  civil  compact.  It  opens  with  a  sentence  which 
Daniel  Webster  used  to  say  is  really  the  first  clause 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States :  "  In  the 
name  of  God,  Amen."  There  are  now  in  this  yet 
young  nation  church-members  enough,  including  the 
Romish,  to  constitute  one  in  six  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation. It  would  appear  that  this  first  clause  of  the 
Constitution  would  be  good  for  something,  if  church- 
members  were  good  for  any  thing.  In  1800  we  had 
only  one  in  fifteen  inside  the  church. 

Professor  Tholuck,  with  the  emphasis  of  tears  in 
his  deep,  spiritual  eyes,  once  said  to  me  at  Halle,  in 
his  garden  on  the  banks  of  the  Saale,  that  he  re- 
gretted nothing  so  much  in  the  arrangements  of  the 
German  state  churches  as  that  the  distinction  between 
the  converted  and  the  unconverted,  which  Whitefield 
and  Jonathan  Edwards  drew  so  deeply  upon  the 
mind  of  New  England,  is  almost  unknown,  not  to 

167 


168  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

the  theories,  but  to  the  church  practices,  of  Germany. 
"  We  are  all  mixed  pell-mell  together,"  said  he. 
"  After  confirmation,  we  are  all,  in  one  sense,  mem- 
bers of  the  church.  I  have  always  regarded  the  dis- 
tinction you  preserve  in  New  England  between  a 
man  who  has  made  a  solemn  public  profession  of  his 
purpose  to  lead  a  religious  life,  and  the  one  who  has 
not,  as  the  most  important  portion  of  the  unwritten 
constitution  of  your  nation."  Except  Scotland, 
there  is  no  land  on  the  globe  that  makes  as  much 
of  this  distinction  as  New  England  does.  So  has 
the  spirit  of  the  unwritten  law  permeated  society 
at  large  here  and  in  Scotland,  that  disgusts  of  the 
world  with  the  church  are  sure  to  stifle  the  useful- 
ness of  the  latter,  if  this  law  is  administered  laxly. 

Whitefield  often  affirmed  that  he  would  rather 
have  a  church  with  ten  men  in  it  right  with  God 
than  one  with  five  hundred  at  whom  the  world  laughs 
in  its  sleeves.  Not  long  ago,  I  heard  of  a  church- 
member  who  had  failed  four  times,  and  paid  only  ten 
cents  on  the  dollar,  and  who  had  three  times  assigned 
his  property  to  relatives  in  an  infamous  manner. 
He  was  making  a  speech  in  a  summer  evening  devo- 
tional gathering ;  and  the  shutters  of  the  basement 
of  the  church  were  open,  and  the  quick,  sharp  boys 
of  the  common  were  within  hearing.  This  religious 
man  was  saying,  "  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  our  con- 
gregation should  all  alone  maintain  a  missionary  on 
some  foreign  shore.  For  such  a  purpose  I  will  my- 
self give  a  hundred  dollars."  —  "  Ten  cents  on  the 
dollar?  "  said  a  boy  outside  the  shutters  of  a  win- 


CAN  A   PERFECT   BEING   PERMIT   EVIL?        169 

dow.  [Applause.]  Now,  what  if  that  boy  had  been 
placed  face  to  face  with  that  man  for  conversation 
on  personal  religion  ?  You  say  this  is  an  extreme 
case ;  but,  under  our  voluntary  system,  which,  no 
doubt,  teaches  us  religious  activity  and  generosity, 
there  will  be,  as  our  population  grows,  cases  like  this 
arising  with  alarming  frequency  in  great  towns, 
where  men  cannot  watch  each  other,  although  they 
are  members  of  the  same  church.  Your  voluntary 
system  has  priceless  effects ;  but  one  of  its  incidental 
disadvantages  is,  that,  unless  a  spirit  of  most  uncom- 
mon piety  pervades  and  fires  the  church,  you  cannot 
shut  out  the  dross  you  would  not  have,  while  you 
take  in  the  gold  you  must  have.  Judas,  in  your 
voluntary  church-system,  often  carries  the  bag ; 
often,  I  say,  not  always ;  and  sometimes,  when  he 
does  carry  it,  the  infelicity  is,  that  he  rules  the  purse- 
strings,  and  will  not  go  and  hang  himself.  [Ap- 
plause.] What  is  the  chief  difficulty  in  such  con- 
versations as  we  are  many  of  us  sure  to  be  asked 
this  winter  to  enter  into  with  the  unconverted  ? 
Hands  not  clean  in  business ;  ledgers  that  will  not 
bear  a  neighbor's  glance  ;  a  personal  record  behind 
the  church-member  which  he  dares  not  open  to  the 
world ;  or,  in  brief,  any  lack  of  crystallineness  that 
prevents  the  transmission  of  God's  light  through 
you.  If  we  are  indeed  open  to  all  the  influences  of 
conscience  as  the  air  is  to  the  light,  then,  when  the 
radiance  of  the  sky  behind  the  sky  shines  on  us,  it 
will  shine  through  us;  and  it  will  be  found  that 
God's  sunbeams  will  in  such  a  sense  penetrate  us, 


170  TRANSCEXDEKTALISM. 

that  througli  us  men  may  look  into  his  face.  But 
there  are  smutched  windows,  on  the  panes  of  which 
the  soot  and  grime  of  city  greed  and  fraud  have 
fallen  flake  by  flake.  Who  cares  to  look  through 
them  toward  God  ?  That  kind  of  dim  religious  light 
is  not  of  the  devoutest  sort ;  and  the  world  knows 
the  fact. 

No  doubt,  the  disgusts  of  the  world  with  the 
church  are  many  of  them  unjustifiable ;  and  particu- 
larly is  it  improper  for  the  pulpit  to  be  called  upon 
to  be  as  brilliant  twice  or  thrice  a  week  as  the  lecture 
platform  is  once  a  year.  We  ask  our  ministry  to 
perform  arduous  parish  duties,  and  to  be  brilliant 
orators  besides,  three  times  or  twice  a  week  before 
the  same  audience,  year  after  year.  No  such  task  is 
put  upon  any  lecturer  or  upon  any  congressman. 
As  matters  stand,  I  think  the  average  sermon  is  intel- 
lectually as  able  as  the  average  congressional  speech. 
You  cannot  have  a  Burke  or  Shakspeare  in  every 
editor's  chair ;  but  pulpits  are  more  numerous  than 
newspapers.  If,  therefore,  you  think  it  natural  that 
some  of  our  newspapers  should  be  the  weakest  of 
weeklies,  and  if  some  of  them  are  conducted  by  men 
who  make  portions  of  our  press  lineal  descendants 
of  the  reptiles  that  filled  old  Egypt,  what  must  we 
say  when  pulpits,  more  numerous  than  editors' 
chairs,  must  all  be  filled  by  men  who  have  charac- 
ter? The  American  ministry,  for  intellectual  equip- 
ment and  general  intellectual  capacity,  assuredly  com- 
pares favorably  with  any  other  the  world  ever  saw, 
and  with  any  profession  of  equal  niunbers. 


CAN  A   PERFECT   BEING   PERMIT   EVIL?       171 

But  the  world  has  a  right  to  be  disgusted  if  moral 
faults  in  the  church  sow  the  soil  of  religious  society 
with  the  bowlders  of  distrust.  When  we  cast  in  the 
ploughshare,  when  we  try  to  turn  up  to  God's  noon 
the  soil  of  New  England  to-day,  we  meet  yet  with 
bowlders  enough  beneath  the  soil.  Some  prayer- 
meetings  you  cannot  get  young  men  into  any  more 
than  you  can  a  rat  into  a  trap  without  a  bait ;  and 
the  reason  is,  that  business-men  are  there  who  have 
no  good  record  with  society.  Give  me  but  a  few 
princes  in  business,  who  are  also  princes  in  the 
church,  —  and  there  are  some  such  princes  in  Boston  ; 
they  are  not  infrequently  found  throughout  New 
England,  although  their  names  are  infrequently  her- 
alded, —  give  me  princes  among  men,  and  I  will  give 
you  princes  who  can  set  religious  fashions  of  the 
divine  sort  easily. 

What  are  the  chief  parts  of  the  religious  conversa- 
tion wliich  the  religiously  resolute  should  hold  with 
the  religiously  irresolute  ?  I  think  four  tilings 
should  occur  in  every  religious  conversation  of  this 
endlessly  sacred  sort.  First,  let  there  be  secret 
prayer  on  your  part,  of  the  kind  that  approaches 
God  through  total,  affectionate,  irreversible  self-sur- 
render to  conscience ;  and  this  act  will  permeate  you, 
by  fixed  natural  law,  with  a  strange  power  not  your 
own.  Unless  you  know  how  to  obtain  an  equipment 
of  entire  genuineness,  beware  how  you  approach 
any  human  being  on  religious  topics.  Next  ask  the 
person  you  converse  with,  "What  is  your  chief 
religious  difficulty  ?  "    It  is  vastly  important  to  avoid 


172  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

debate  in  sucli  secret  moments,  and  it  is  yet  more 
vastly  important  to  turn  all  thouglits  upon  the  deep- 
est inmost  of  conscience.  This  question  T,  for  one, 
have  found,  in  somewhat  more  than  a  hand's  breadth 
of  experience,  quite  as  useful  as  any  other  in  effect- 
ing both  these  objects.  Perhaps  the  man  with  whom 
you  converse  does  not  know  what  Ms  greatest  diffi- 
culty is ;  but,  if  you  induce  him  to  make  an  effort  to 
state  that  difficulty,  you  will  help  him  to  solve  it. 
Difficulty  well  stated  is  half  solved.  "  What  is  the 
knot  that  chokes  you  ?  "  Perhaps  he  thinks  of  some 
secret  sin  of  his  own ;  and  thinks,  also,  that  you  have 
a  greater  secret  sin.  If  he  thinks  this,  you  will  not 
untie  the  knot ;  perhaps  he  may  untie  yours.  Noth- 
ing so  stimulates  a  dead  man  as  to  set  him  at  the 
work  of  reviving  the  dead.  [Applause.]  Try,  next, 
to  untie  the  knot  by  clear  ideas  and  sound  words. 
Then,  lastly,  kneel  down  with  that  man,  and,  by  the 
contagious  self-surrender  of  two  souls  face  to  face 
with  the  Unseen  Holy,  ask  the  Divine  Nature  to 
untie  the  knot. 

Give  me  a  complete  self-surrender  of  the  will  to 
God  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord,  and  there  is  no  knot 
that  will  not  be  untied  in  time.  Indeed,  whoever  will 
untie  that  supreme  knot  of '  dissimilarity  of  feeling 
with  God  which  now  chokes  us  all,  will  find  that  he 
has  done  something  strangely  strategic ;  he  has 
brought  into  his  service  the  law  of  the  self-propagat- 
ing power  of  divine  affections ;  and  little  by  little 
he  will  be  taken  into  the  fold,  from  behind  which  no 
force,  human  or  infernal,  has  power  to  snatch  him 


CAN   A   PERFECT   BEESTG  PER]\nT   EVIL?        173 

out.  Nay,  not  little  by  little !  On  the  instant  of 
total  self-surrender,  the  kneeling  man  may  be 
crowned,  or  may  have  given  him  from  on  high  a 
new,  supreme  passion.  If  he  be  really  genuine  in 
his  self-surrender  to  God,  there  will,  at  the  instant 
of  such  surrender,  spring  up  in  him  a  new  life,  con- 
sisting of  a  predominant  love  of  what  God  loves, 
and  a  predominant  hate  of  what  God  hates.  Thus 
the  drunkard  will  lose  his  thirst,  as  he  cannot  under 
any  resolution  of  a  merely  secular  sort.  Thus,  as  a 
supreme  miracle,  she  who  might  be  queenly,  she 
who  had  a  mother  pure  as  yours  was,  she  whom  you 
tread  into  the  mire,  she  whom  natural  instincts  of 
her  own  sex  are  the  swiftest  and  none  too  swift  to 
condemn,  may  have  given  her  of  Almighty  God  at 
the  instant  of  her  total  and  glad  surrender  to  him, 
though  never  till  then,  the  kiss  which  awaits  a  re- 
turning prodigal  sister ;  and,  after  his  kiss,  deserve 
yours.     [Applause.] 

THE   LECTURE. 

In  the  Singalese  books  of  Gotama  Buddha,  written 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Himalayas,  we  find  the 
statement,  that  as  surely  as  the  pebble  cast  heaven- 
ward abides  not  there,  but  returns  to  the  earth,  so, 
proportionate  to  thy  deed,  good  or  ill,  will  the  desire 
of  thy  heart  be  meted  out  to  thee  in  whatever  form 
or  world  thou  shalt  enter.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
Socrates,  recorded  with  favor  by  Plato,  that  "  the 
wicked  would  be  too  well  off  if  their  evil  deeds  came 
to  an  end  "  (Jowett's  Plato^  Introduction  to  Phcedo^. 


174  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

All  disloyalty  to  the  still  small  voice  wliicli  declares 
what  ought  to  be  is  followed  by  pain.  What  if  it 
were  not  ?  Is  God  God,  if,  with  unscientific  liberal- 
ism, we  in  our  philosophy  put  the  throne  of  the 
universe  upon  rockers,  and  make  of  it  an  easy-chair 
from  which  lullabys  are  sung  both  to  the  evil  and  to 
the  good  ? 

Whatever  we  do,  God  is  on  our  side  !  So  say 
many  who  would  not  dare  to  affirm,  that,  whatever 
we  do,  the  nature  of  things  is  on  our  side.  But  the 
nature  of  things  is  only  the  total  outcome  of  the 
requirements  of  the  perfections  of  the  Divine  Nature. 
God  is  behind  the  nature  of  things ;  and  you  and  I 
cannot  trifle  with  him  any  more  than  with  it.  He 
was ;  he  is ;  he  is  to  come.  It  was ;  it  is ;  it  is  to 
come.     It  is  he. 

Great  literature  always  recognizes  the  law  of  moral 
gravitation.  Seeking  the  deepest  modern  words,  I 
open,  for  instance,  Thomas  Carlyle,  and  read  : 

"'Penalties:'  quarrel  not  with  the  old  phraseology,  good 
reader ;  attend,  rather,  to  the  thing  it  means.  The  word  was 
heard  of  old,  with  a  right  solemn  meaning  attached  to  it,  from 
theological  pulpits  and  such  places,  and  may  still  be  heard  there, 
with  a  half  meaning,  or  with  no  meaning,  though  it  has  rather 
become  obsolete  to  modem  ears.  But  the  tldng  should  not  have 
fallen  obsolete:  the  thing  is  a  grand  and  solemn  truth,  expres- 
sive of  a  silent  law  of  heaven,  which  continues  forever  valid. 
The  most  untheological  of  men  may  still  assert  the  thing,  and 
invite  all  men  to  notice  it  as  a  silent  monition  and  prophecy  in 
this  Universe,  to  take  it,  with  more  of  awe  than  they  are  wont, 
as  a  correct  reading  of  the  Will  of  the  Eternal  in  respect  of 
Buch  matters,  and  in  their  modern  sphere  to  bear  the  same  well 
in  mind. 


CAN   A   PERFECT   BEING   PERMIT    EVIL?        175 

"  The  want  of  loyalty  to  tlie  ^Maker  of  this  vmiverse !  —  lie 
who  wants  that,  what  else  has  he,  or  can  he  have?  If  you  do 
not,  you  ]\Ian  or  you  Nation,  love  the  Truth  enough,  but  try  to 
make  a  chapman-bargain  with  Ti-uth,  instead  of  giving  yourself 
wholly,  soul  and  body  and  life  to  her,  Truth  will  not  live  with 
■you,  Truth  will  depart  from  you;  and  only  Logic,  'Wit'  (for 
example,  '  London  Vv'it '),  Sophistiy,  Yu'tu,  the  iEsthetic  Arts, 
and  perhaps  (for  a  short  while)  Book-keeping  by  double  entry, 
will  abide  with  you.  You  will  follow  falsity,  and  think  it  tnith, 
3'ou  unfortunate  IVLin  or  Xation.  You  will,  right  surely,  you 
for  one,  stumble  to  tlie  Devil;  and  are  eveiy  day  and  hour,  little 
as  you  imagine  it,  making  progress  thither"  (Carlyle,  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  vol.  i.  pp.  270,  271). 

This  majestic  keynote  of  scientific,  etliical  truth  is 
the  deep  tone  that  leads  the  anthem  of  all  great 
thought  since  the  world  began.  Open,  now,  Theo- 
dore Parker  ;  and  how  harshly  his  words  clash  with 
Carlyle's ! 

"  The  infinite  perfection  of  God  is  the  corner-stone  of  all  my 
theological  and  religious  teaching,  the  foundation,  perhaps,  of 
all  that  is  peculiar  in  my  system.  It  is  not  known  to  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  New;  it  has  never  been  accepted  by  any  sect 
in  the  Cliristiau  world.  The  idea  of  God's  imperfection  has 
been  canned  out  with  dreadful  logic  in  the  Chi'istian  scheme. 
In  the  ecclesiastical  conception  of  the  Deity  there  is  a  fourth 
person  in  the  Godhead,  —  namely,  the  Devil,  —  an  outlying 
member,  unacknowledged,  indeed,  the  complex  of  all  evil,  but 
as  much  a  part  of  Deity  as  either  Son  or  Holy  Ghost,  and  far 
more  powerful  than  all  the  rest,  who  seem  but  jackals  to  provide 
for  this  roaring  lion  "  (Weiss,  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  ii.  p.  470). 

"  God  is  a  perfect  Creator,  making  all  from  a  perfect  motive, 
for  a  perfect  purpose.  The  motive  must  be  love,  the  purpose 
welfare.  The  perfect  Creator  is  a  perfect  Providence,  love 
becoming  a  imiverse  of  perfect  welfare."     (Jbid.,  p.  471.) 


176  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

'•Optimism  is  the  religion  of  science."  '■'■  Every  fall  is  a 
fall  upward.''  (Sermons  on  Theism,  p.  408.  See  also  pp.  147 
and  299.) 

One  feels,  in  reading  Theodore  Parker,  that,  whatever 
we  do,  God  is  on  our  side.  Carlyle  is  of  a  very  differ- 
ent opinion.  He  is  moved  by  no  faith  deeper  than 
that  the  distinction  between  duty  and  its  opposite 
is  "  quite  infinite."  What  is  in  the  lines  here  in  Par- 
ker is  not  so  painful  as  what  is  between  the  lines. 
Place  side  by  side  this  free-thinker  Carlyle,  and  that 
free-thinker  Parker,  and  ask  whi(5h  is  the  truer  of 
the  two  to  the  deep  intuitions  of  the  soul.  Con- 
trast the  seriousness  of  Buddha,  and  the  tone  of 
this  man  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Compare  Socra- 
tes and  Plato  under  the  shade  of  the  Acropolis, 
with  tliis  modern  man  under  the  shade  of —  what  ? 
Of  a  stunted  mental  philosophy,  rooted  well,  in- 
deed, in  our  soil  in  his  time,  but  only  a  very  im- 
perfect growth  as  yet,  and  hardly  risen  above  the 
ground,  when  the  attempt  was  made  here  to  deny 
the  existence  of  sin,  and  of  its  natural  wages  in  the 
universe  in  the  name  of  an  intuitive  philosophy, 
wliich  asserts  precisely  the  opposite  in  both  cases. 
[Applause.] 

or  course,  gentlemen,  you  expect  me  not  to  skip 
the  topic  of  the  origin  of  evil ;  for,  after  all,  the 
question  which  touches  that  theme  quite  as  often  as 
any  other  drives  men  into  intellectual  unrest,  throw- 
ing some  into  atheism,  some  into  a  denial  of  the 
authority  of  Scripture,  some  into  various  forms  of  a 
false,  loose,  unscholarly  liberalism. 


CAN  A  PERFECT   BEING   PERMIT   EVIL?        177 

What  are  the  more  important  points  which  the  use 
of  the  scientific  method  can  make  clear  on  this  mul- 
tiplex, overawing  theme  of  the  origin  of  evil  ? 

1.  There  cannot  be  thouc^ht  without  a  thinker. 

2.  There  is  Thoufrht  in  the  universe. 

3.  Therefore  there  is  a  Thinker  m  the  universe. 

4.  But  a  tliinker  is  a  Person. 

5.  Therefore  there  is  a  Personal  Tliinker  in  the 
universe. 

You  will  grant  me  at  least  what  Descartes  made 
the  basis  of  his  philosophy,  Cogito,  ergo  sum :  "  I 
think,  therefore  I  am."  I  know  that  I  think,  and 
therefore  I  know  that  I  am,  and  that  I  am  a  person. 
Agassiz  says,  in  his  Essay  on  Classification,  that 
the  universe  "  exhibits  thought ;  "  and  that  is  not  a 
very  heterodox  opinion.  You  know  with  what  mag- 
nificent logical,  rhetorical,  and  moral  power,  the 
massive  Agassiz,  in  tjiat  best  of  his  books,  gathers  up 
range  after  range  of  the  operations  of  the  natural 
laws,  and  closes  every  paragraph  with  this  language  : 
"These  facts  exhibit  thought,"  "these  facts  exhibit 
mind ; "  and  so  on  and  on,  across  heights  of  intellect- 
ual scenery,  gigantic  as  his  own  Alps,  and  as  little 
likely  to  be  pulverized.  [Applause.]  When  that 
man,  in  presence  of  the  scientific  world,  bowed  his 
head  in  silent  prayer  in  the  face  of  the  audience  at 
Penikese,  he  did  it  before  a  Person.  What  cared  he 
for  the  lonely  few  sciolists  who  assume  that  there  is 
no  reason  for  holding  their  heads  otherwise  than 
erect  in  this  universe  ?  As  I  contrast  his  mood  and 
theirs,  I   think  always   of  the  old  apologue  of  the 


178  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

heavy  heads  of  wheat,  and  light  heads :    the  heavy 
heads  always  bend.    [Applause.] 

You  say  that  you  are  sure  you  are  a  thinker, 
because  you  know  there  is  thought  in  you.  I  know 
there  is  a  TJmikcr  in  the  universe^  because  there  is 
Thought  in  it;  and  there  cannot  be  thought  without  a 
thinker.  [Applause.]  There  cannot  be  a  here  with- 
out a  there.  There  cannot  be  a  before  without  an 
after.  Just  so,  in  the  nature  of  things,  there  cannot 
be  a  Thought  without  a  Thinker.  If  we  know  there 
is  Thought  in  the  universe,  let  us  quit  all  doubt 
about  a  Divine  Thinker. 

What !  falling  into  anthropomorphism,  are  you  ? 
That  i:3  a  long  word ;  but  it  means  making  God  too 
much  like  man.  Stern  Ethan  Allen,  who  made  a 
speech  once  near  Lake  George,  in  a  fort  the  ruins  of 
which  were  part  of  my  playground  in  earliest  j^ears, 
said,  in  a  book  written  to  attack  Christianity,  "  There 
must  be  some  resemblance  between  the  divine  nature 
and  the  human  nature.  I  do  know  some  things,  and 
God  knows  all  things  ;  and  therefore,  in  a  few  partic- 
ulars, there  is  resemblance  between  man  and  God " 
(Oracles  of  Reason).  Anthropomorphism,  or  the 
likening  of  God  to  man,  is  not  quite  as  bad  as  liken- 
ing God  to  mere  blind  physical  force,  is  it  ?  Most 
of  those  who  are  shyest  of  what  is  called  anthropo- 
morphism are  advocates  of  a  theory  which  likens 
God  to  what  ?  To  the  hii^hest  we  know  ?  Not  at 
all.  To  the  next  to  the  highest  ?  No.  They  liken 
liim  to  one  of  the  lowest  things  we  know, — to  mere 
physical  force,  which  has  in  itself  no  thought  or  will. 


CAN  A  PERFECT  BEING  PEHinT  EVIL?   179 

Force,  the  unknown  God,  forsootli  ?  No  doul)t  He 
■whom  we  dare  not  name  is  behind  all  force  ;  but  to 
take  one  of  the  lower  manifestations  of  his  power  as 
that  according  to  which  we  will  describe  his  whole 
nature  is  far  more  scandalous  than  to  take  the  lofti- 
est v/e  know,  and  to  say  that  God  at  least  is  equal  to 
that ;  and  how  much  better  neither  man  nor  angel 
knows,  or  ever  will.  [Applause.]  Descartes  wrote, 
in  a  passage  closely  following  his  famous  aphorism, 
and  wliich  ought  to  be  as  famous  as  that :  "  I  murt 
have  been  brought  into  existence  by  a  Being  at  least 
as  perfect  as  myself."  The  Maker  must  be  better 
than  liis  work.  "  He  must  transcend  in  excellence 
my  highest  imagination  of  perfection." 

Is  it  anthropomorphism  to  say  that  there  cannot 
be  thought  without  a  thinker,  and  that  there  h 
Thought,  and  that  therefore  there  must  be  a  Thinker, 
in  the  universe  ?  That  is  a  necessary  conclusion 
from  self-evident,  intuitive,  axiomatic  truth.  It  is  an 
inference  as  tremorless  as  the  assertion,  that,  if  there 
is  a  here,  there  is  a  there.  So  are  we  made,  that  we 
cannot  deny,  that,  if  there  is  Thought  in  the  uni- 
verse, there  must  be  a  Thinker.  Gentlemen,  let  us 
rejoice  with  a  gladness  as  shoreless  and  reverent  as 
this  noon  above  our  heads.  Let  us  occupy,  our  privi- 
leges. Let  our  souls  go  out  to  Ilim  who  holds  the 
infinities  and  eternities  in  his  palm  as  the  small  dust 
of  the  balance  I  Let  our  thoughts,  if  possible,  not  faint 
as  they  pass  from  the  planet  which  lie  governs  by  his 
will  called  gravitation,  or  from  the  winkings  of  our 
eyelids,  whicli  the  Asiatic  proverb  says  are  numbered, 


180  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

up  to  the  star  surf  of  the  galaxies  in  which  all  the 
drops  are  known  by  name  to  Him  who  makes  no 
mistake.  This  Thinker,  with  omnipotence  and  om- 
niscience revealed  by  his  works,  ought  to  be  holy. 
His  unfathomable  greatness  raises  the  presumption 
of  his  holiness. 

But  we  are  not  left  in  doubt  upon  this  theme ;  for 
special  light  is  given  in  the  universe  wherever  doubt 
would  be  the  most  dangerous. 

6.  Every  law  in  nature  is  the  method  of  action  of 
some  will. 

Having  on  previous  occasions  presented  to  you  the 
proof  of  that  proposition  which  ninety-five  out  of  a 
hundred  of  the  foremost  names  in  physical  science 
assert,  I  need  do  now  no  more  than  recite  the  names 
of  Dana,  Agassiz,  Carpenter,  Faraday,  Helmholtz, 
Wundt,  and  Lotze,  in  support  of  a  truth  wliich  trans- 
figures the  universe.  (See  closing  chapters  of  Car- 
penter's Blental  Physiology.') 

7.  There  is  in  the  universe  an  eternal  law  which 
makes  for  righteousness. 

Matthew  Arnold  is  authority  for  that,  although  his 
outlook  on  religious  science  and  philosophy  is  much 
like  a  woman's  outlook  on  politics.      [Applause.] 

8.  The  existence  of  that  law  is  revealed  in  all  outer 
experience  or  history. 

Even  Matthew  Arnold  says,  that,  if  you  wish  to 
know  that  fire  will  burn,  you  can  put  your  hand  in 
it  and  obtain  proof ;  and  that  you  can,  in  the  same 
experimental  way,  convince  yourself  that  there  is  in 
history  a  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness. 


CAN  A   PERFECT   BEING   PEKMIT   EVIL?        181 

9,.  This  law  is  revealed,  with  vividness  in  the  inner 
experience  in  all  the  natural  operations  of  con- 
science. 

10.  There  is,  therefore,  in  the  universe  a  Holy 
Will. 

11.  But  a  Holy  Will  can  belong  only  to  a  Holy 
Person. 

12.  But  we  know  that  the  moral  law  is  perfect ; 
for  it  requires  invariably  and  unconditionally  tohat 
ought  to  he. 

A  fathomless  deep  that  word  ought !  An  intuition 
of  rightness  and  oughtness  lies  at  the  centre  of  it. 
In  every  individual,  moral  good  is  simply  what  ought 
to  5e,  and  moral  evil  ichat  ought  not  to  he,  in  the 
choices  of  the  soul  among  motives. 

13.  The  JNIaker  must  be  more  glorious  than  the 
thing  made. 

14.  TJie  j^erfection  of  the  moral  laiv  inhering  in  the 
nature  of  things  proves  the  perfection  of  the  Divine 
Nature. 

15.  The  perfection  of  the  moral  law  is  a  self-evident, 
axiomatic,  intuitive  truth. 

16.  All  objections  to  the  helief  that  Crocl  is  perfect 
are,  therefore,  shattered  upon  the  incontrovertible  fact 
of  the  perfection  of  the  moral  laiv. 

17.  The  perfection  of  the  Divine  Nature  having 
been  proved  on  the  basis  of  axiomatic  truth,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  present  S3^stem  of  the  universe  is  the 
best  possible  system,  and  that  the  present  moral  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  is  the  best  possible  moral 
government  of  tlie  world. 


182  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

18.  In  all  investigations  concerning  the  origin  of  evil^ 
we  must  keep  in  the  foreground  the  axiomatically 
demonstrated  fact  of  the  perfection  of  the  Divine 
Mature. 

Gentlemen,  there  is  no  one  here  deeply  impressed 
with  the  duty  of  using  intuition,  instinct,  syllogism, 
and  experiment  as  tests  of  truth,  who  will  not  grant 
me  the  proposition  that  there  is  a  perfect  moral  law 
in  the  universe.  There  is  no  man  here  who  grants 
me  that  proposition,  who  can  analyze  it  in  the  light 
of  self-evident  truth,  and  not  find  himself  obliged  to 
admit,  that,  as  there  is  a  perfect  moral  law,  there  must 
be  a  perfect  moral  lawgiver.  You  will  allow  me,  in 
view  of  previous  discussions  here,  to  use,  from  this 
point  onwards,  the  incontrovertible  deliverance  oi 
the  intuitional  philosophy,  that  the  existence  in  the 
nature  of  things  of  a  perfect  moral  law  implies  the 
existence  in  the  universe  of  a  holy  will ;  which  will  can 
belong  only  to  a  Perfect  Person. 

The  perfection  of  the  Divine  Nature  having  been 
proved  from  the  perfection  of  the  moral  law,  what 
inferences  follow  as  to  the  origin  of  evil  ? 

1.  It  id  a  self-evident  or  intuitive  truth  that  sin 
exists  in  this  world. 

2.  God  is  perfect. 

3.  Why  did  God  permit  sin  to  exist  ? 

4.  Of  the  many  answers  to  this  question,  all  are,  per- 
haps, conjectures. 

Take  up  Kant,  and  read  his  discussion  of  "  Reli- 
gion inside  the  Range  of  Mere  Reason,"  and  you 
will  find  him  concluding  that  the  moral  law  itself, 


CAN   A   PEKFECT   BEING   PERMIT   EVIL?       183 

which  he  regarded  as  the  sublimest  thing  known  to 
man,  cannot  be  quite  explained  to  the  human  under- 
standing. "We  know  that  this  law  has  unconditioned 
authority ;  and  yet,  if  we  try  to  go  behind  its  un- 
conditional "  categorical  imperative,"  "  Thou  ought- 
est  "  and  ''  Thou  shalt,"  we  find  ourselves  stopped 
by  something  beyond  our  comprehension,  although 
not  behind  our  apprehension.  Just  so  Julius  Miiller, 
discussing  the  topic  of  the  origin  of  evil,  quotes  this 
language  of  Kant's,  and  says  that  the  student  of  reli- 
gious science  need  not  be  ashamed  to  say  that  the 
origin  of  evil  is  involved  in  much  mystery  (MuL- 
LER,  Doctrine  of  Sin,  vol.  ii.  p.  172).  Although  we 
can  know  some  things,  we  do  not  pretend  to  know  all 
things,  concerning  it.  We  may  make  many  conjec- 
tures concerning  it ;  we  may  say  that  it  arises  in  the 
abuse  of  the  free  will :  but  what  led  to  that  abuse  of 
free  will  ?  The  very  arbitrariness  of  will  when  it 
chooses  evil  —  was  that  the  cause  of  the  abuse  of  free 
will  by  itself?  Miiller,  you  will  remember,  teaches 
explicitly,  as  Kant  did  implicitly,  that  the  origin  of 
evil  is  to  bo  referred  back  to  an  extra-temporal  ex- 
istence, where  conditions  unknown  to  man  brought 
about  the  first  sin.  He  would  account  for  the  orimn 
of  evil,  not  by  what  we  see  in  this  world,  but  by 
what  may  have  occurred  in  some  state  of  existence 
before  this,  and  in  which  man  was  implicated  as  a 
personality.  I  am  not  adopting  that  portion  of 
Julius  Miiller's  scheme  of  thought.  Many  of  the 
deepest  students  of  the  theme  affirm  that  we  cannot 
explain  the  origin  of  evil  without  going  back  to  u 
state  of  existence  previous  to  this. 


184  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

5.  Even  among  conjectures  there  may  be  a  great 
choice. 

6.  Is  sin  permitted,  as  a  dragooning  process,  to 
eventuate  in  good  at  last? 

No :  for  then  sin  ought  to  be ;  and  conscience  affirms 
that  it  ought  not  to  be. 

Is  sin  the  necessary  means  of  the  greatest  good  ? 

No  ;  for  the  same  reason. 

Has  all  sin  an  ultimately  beneficial  effect?  or  is 
every  fall  a  fall  upward  ? 

No;  for,  if  this  be  the  case,  there  is  reason  to 
doubt  whether  God  is  perfectly  benevolent. 

Let  us  suppose  that  there  stands  on  the  right,  here 
in  the  universe,  a  marble  staircase,  and  on  the  left  a 
staircase  of  red-hot  iron.  Let  both  ascend  to  the 
same  height,  namely,  to  a  universe  from  which  all 
sin  shall  be  eliminated.  You  go  up  by  the  marble 
staircase ;  you  reach  that  stage,  —  a  universe  in 
which  there  is  no  sin.  You  go  up  by  the  red-hot 
iron  staircase ;  you  reach  the  same  stage,  —  a  uni- 
verse in  which  there  is  no  sin.  I  beg  you  to  be  cau- 
tious now  and  here  lest  you  be  misled.  I  warn  you 
that  just  here  is  the  place  where  you  will  think  I  was 
too  rapid,  and  that  you  did  not  quite  know  what  j^ou 
admitted.  You  say  that  all  penalty  for  sin  has  a 
remedial  tendency,  and  that  ultimately  we  shall 
reach  a  state  in  which  there  will  be  no  evil  in  the 
universe.  Men  are  going  up  the  red-hot  iron  stair- 
case. This  represents  the  path  of  their  suffering  for 
sin.  Ultimately,  however,  this  staircase,  you  say, 
will  bring  all  who  go  up  it  into  freedom  from  all  sin. 


CAN  A  PERFECT   BEING  PERMIT   EVIL?        185 

Be  mercilessly  clear.  Could  not  God  take  men 
up  the  marble  staircase  to  that  same  height  ?  "  Yes," 
you  say,  "  He  is  omnipotent,  omniscient."  Do  you 
admit  that?  Immense  consequences  turn  on  your 
being  clear  just  here.  God  might  take  men  up  the 
marble  staircase,  which  represents  the  path  of  holy 
free  choice,  and  freedom  from  the  penalties  of  sin.  A 
universe  free  from  sin  is  what  you  wish  to  reach. 
]\Ien  may  be  taken  up  this  marble  staircase  to  that 
height ;  or  they  may  be  taken  up  the  red-hot  iron 
staircase  of  suffering:  to  the  same  hei<]rht. 

I  affirm  that  your  theory  of  evil  is  dishonorable  to 
God ;  for  we  do  know  that  men  are  going  up  on  the 
fiery  staircase.  They  are  suffering  remorse  ;  they  are 
filled  with  anguish ;  and  the  outcome  of  all  that 
suffering  is  to  be  only  the  attaining  of  a  height  to 
which  God,  according  to  jout  theory,  might  have 
raised  them  without  any  suffering  at  all.  Therefore 
here  are  useless  pains.  He  who  injiicts  them  cannot 
he  supremely  benevolent.  You  might  attain  the  plat- 
form which  represents  the  absence  of  sin  from  the 
universe  by  that  marble  ."staircase  :  you  are  attaining 
it  by  the  red-hot  iron  staircase.  Why  does  he  per- 
mit men  to  ascend  to  that  height  by  pain,  when  they 
might  ascend  to  the  same  height  without  pain  ?  If 
he  has  no  motive  in  that  red-hot  iron  staircase^  except 
to  take  men  up,  why  does  he  not  take  men  up  by  the 
cold  marble  ?  lie  is  not  taking  men  up  by  the  cold 
marble  :  he  is  taking  them  up  the  other  way.  But  if, 
as  you  say,  he  has  no  motive  but  to  take  men  up ;  if, 
as  Theodore  Parker  said,  every  fall  is  a  fall  upward, 


186  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

—  how  are  you  to  prove  the  divine  benevolence, 
face  to  face  with  his  preference  for  that  staircase, 
when  he  might  have  chosen  the  other? 

Assuredly,  the  theory  that  all  evil  is  a  dragooning 
process,  and  that  evil  is  the  necessary  means  to  the 
greatest  good,  not  only  is  false  to  the  intuitions 
which  declare  that  evil  ought  not  to  be,  but  is  in 
conflict  with  the  truth  that  God  is  perfect.  You 
cannot  make  it  clear  that  God  is  perfect,  if  every  fall 
is  a  fall  upward ;  for  men  might  go  up  the  marble 
staircase,  whereas  they  do  go  up  by  the  red-hot  iron. 
There  is  some  other  reason  for  the  red-hot  iron  than  to 
take  men  up. 

The  theory  that  every  fall  is  a  fall  upward  dishon- 
ors God.  I  know  not  but  that  billions  of  times  more 
spirits  go  up  the  marble  staircase  than  up  the  red-hot 
staircase  ;  but,  if  billions  and  billions  do  go  that  way, 
why  could  not  you  or  I  go  that  way. 

It  is  inadmissible  to  assert  that  a  benevolent  Being 
chooses  to  subject  his  creatures  to  extreme  pain,  and 
attains  by  that  means  nothing  that  he  might  not  attain 
without  pain. 

What  answer  does  religious  science  give  to  the 
question  as  to  the  origin  of  evil?  On  this  theme 
there  are  two  strategic  questions  : 

1.  Can  God  prevent  sin  in  a  moral  system? 

2.  Can  God  prevent  sin  in  the  best  moral  system? 
Go  to  New  Haven,  and  from  the  pupils  of  one  of 

the  profoundest  and  most  original  of  New-England 
theologians.  Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor,  you  will  find  author- 
ity for  answering  these  questions  in  this  way : 


CAN  A  PEEFECT  BEING   PERMIT   EVIL?        187 

1.  "Can    God  prevent  sin  in  a   moral   system?" 

—  "We  do  not  know  that  he  can." 

2.  "  Can  God  prevent  sin  in  the  best  moral  sys- 
tem ?  " —  "  No." —  "  How  do  you  know  ?  " —  "  Because 
he  has  not  prevented  it."  [Applause.]  (See  Tay- 
lor's Moral  Government.') 

Go  to  Andover  and  ask  these  questions,  and  you 
will  find  them  answered  in  this  way : 

1.  "Can  God  prevent  sin  in  a  moral  system?" — 
"  Yes." —  "  How  do  you  know  ?  " —  "  Because  he  that 
can  create  can  do  any  thing  that  is  an  object  of 
power.  God  can  do  any  thing  that  does  not  involve 
self-contradiction.  We  must  suppose  that  a  system 
of  living  beings,  all  with  free  wills,  might  be  so  influ- 
enced by  motives  as  to  retain  their  free  will,  and  yet 
not  sin.     God  can  prevent  sin  in  a  moral  system." 

"  Can  God  prevent  sin  in  the  best  moral  system  ?  " 

—  "  No." —  "  How   do   you  know  ?  " —  "  Because   he 
has  not  prevented  it." 

I'he  Divine  Perfection  is  proved  hy  the  perfection  of 
the  moral  law.  Sin  exists.  There  is  no  conclusion  pos- 
sible^ except  that  sin  cannot  be  prevented  wisely. 

What  are  possibly  some  of  the  reasons  why  a  per- 
fect God  cannot  wisely  prevent  sin  in  the  best  moral 
system? 

1.  In  the  nature  of  things,  there  cannot  be  an 
upper  without  an  under,  a  right  without  a  left,  a  be- 
fore without  an  after,  a  good  without,  at  least,  the 
possibility  of  evil. 

2.  In  the  nature  of  things^  the  gift  of  free  agency 


188  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

carries  with  it  the  possibility  that  the  wrong  as  well  as 
the  right  may  he  chosen. 

3.  In  the  nature  of  things,  a  created  being  must  be 
a  finite  being. 

4.  In  the  nature  of  things,  a  finite  is  an  imperfect 
being. 

5.  In  the  nature  of  things,  there  will  he  the  possi- 
hility  of  less  than  ahsolutely  perfect  action  in  every  less 
than  ahsolutely  perfect  agent. 

6.  Man  is  such  an  asrent. 

Julius  Miiller  and  Tholuck,  in  their  earlier  years, 
were  wont  to  fall  into  long  conversations  upon  the 
origin  of  evil ;  and  they  at  last  fastened  upon  Leib- 
nitz's great  thought,  that  the  necessary  limitations  of 
power  and  wisdom  in  all  finite  beings  leave  open  a 
possibility  to  evil.  Do  not  think  Leibnitz  asserted 
that  the  limitations  of  the  finite  creature  make  evil 
necessary.  He  asserts  only  that  they  make  evil  possi- 
ble. I  know  that  I  am  here  not  following  the  author- 
ity of  Dr.  Hodge  of  Princeton,  who  asserts  that  Leib- 
nitz makes  evil  a  necessity  in  the  universe.  He  does 
not,  if  Julius  Miiller  understands  him.  And,  if  some 
reading  of  the  Theodicee  proves  any  thing  to  me, 
Leibnitz  means  to  assert  only  that  the  possihility  of 
evil  inheres  in  the  very  nature  of  things.  If  there  is 
to  be  a  created  being  brought  into  existence,  that 
created  being  must  be  finite  ;  and  as  such  must  be,  to 
a  certain  extent,  an  imperfect  being ;  and  so  may,  not 
must,  fall  into  sin.  While  the  possibility  of  sin  arises 
thus  from  the  necessary  limitation  of  the  wisdom  and 


CAN   A   PERFECT   BEING   PERMIT    EVIL?        189 

power  of  created  beings,  ihefact  of  sin,  according  to 
Leibnitz,  comes  from  abuse  of  free  will.  (See  MiJL- 
LER,  Doctrine  of  iSin,  vol.  i.,  p.  276.) 

7.  It  may  be  that  God  cannot  prevent  sin,  if  he 
deals  with  finite  creatures  according  to  what  is  due 
to  himself. 

8.  It  may  be  better  to  allow  free  agents  to  struggle 
with  sin,  and  thus  grow  in  the  vigor  of  virtue,  than 
to  preserve  them  from  such  struggle,  and  thus  allow 
them  to  remain  weak. 

But,  my  friends,  let  us  rejoice,  that,  after  proving 
the  Divine  Perfection,  we  know  enough  for  our  peace 
as  to  the  origin  of  evil.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to 
establish  the  soundness  of  any  of  these  conjectures ; 
for  none  of  them  are  needed  to  prove  that  God  is 
perfect. 

In  the  heavens  of  the  soul  there  ride  unquenchable 
constellations,  which  assert  that  we  alone  are  to 
blame  if  we  do  what  conscience  says  we  ov(jfht  not  to 
do.  We  are  just  as  sure  of  the  fact  that  we,  and  only 
we,  are  to  blame  when  we  do  what  conscience  pro- 
nounces wrong^  as  we  are  of  our  own  existence.  Our 
demerit  is  a  self-evident  fact.  All  men  take  such 
guilt  for  granted.  We  know  that  we  are  responsible 
as  surely  as  we  all  know  that  we  have  the  power  of 
choice.  We  know  both  facts  from  intuition.  Our 
existence  we  know  only  by  intuition ;  and  by  that 
same  axiomatic  evidence  we  know  our  freedom. 
How  does  sin  originate  in  us  ?  By  a  bad  free  choice. 
Just  so   it   originated   in   the   universe.      But   God 


190  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

brought  US  into  existence.  Yes ;  and  he  maintains 
us  in  existence.  Very  well ;  but  the  axioms  of  self- 
evident  truth  prove  that  he  has  given  to  us  free  will. 
The  ocean  floats  the  piratical  vessels ;  the  sea-breeze 
fills  the  sails  of  the  pirate ;  but  neither  the  ocean  nor 
the  sea-breeze  is  to  blame  for  piracies.     [Applause.] 


ym. 

THE  EELIGION   REQUIEED   BY   THE   NATURE   OF 

THINGS. 

THE    SIXTY-SIXTH    LECTURE     IN     THE     BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,   LN   TREMONT   TEMPLE   FEB.    19. 


"  Una  Mitternacht 
Kampft  ich  die  Slacht, 
O  Menscheit,  deiner  Leiden: 
Nicht  konnt  ich  sie  entscheiden 
Mit  meiner  Macht 
Um  Mitternacht. 

Um  Mitternacht 
Hab'  ich  die  Macht, 
Herr  iiber  Tod  und  Leben, 
In  deine  Hand  gegeben: 
Du  haltst  die  "Wacht 
Um  Mitternacht." 

RiJCKERT. 


"  Miraris  tu  si  Deus  ille  bonorum  amantissimus,  qui  illos  quam 
optimos  esse  atque  excellentissimos  viilt,  fortunam  illia  cum  qua 
exercentur  adsignat  ?" — Seneca. 


vin. 

THE    RELIGION    REQUIRED    BY   THE    NA- 
TURE   OF    THINGS. 

PRELUDE  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

It  would  be  a  sad  whim  in  the  art  of  metallurgy 
if  men  should  take  up  the  notion  that  a  white-heat 
is  not  useful  in  annealing  metals ;  and  so  it  is  a  sad 
whim  in  social  science  when  men  think  that  the 
white-heat  we  call  a  religious  awakening  is  not  use- 
ful in  annealing  society.  Twice  this  nation  has  been 
annealed  in  the  religious  furnace  just  previously  to 
being  called  on  to  perform  majestic  civil  duties. 
You  remember  that  the  thirsty,  seething,  tumultu- 
ous, incalculably  generative,  years  from  1753  to  1783, 
or  from  the  opening  of  the  French  war  to  the  close 
of  the  Revolution,  were  preceded  by  what  is  known 
to  history  as  the  Great  Awakening  in  New  England 
ill  1740,  under  Whitefield  and  Edwards.  So,  too,  Li 
1857,  when  we  were  on  the  edge  of  our  civil  wai', 
the  whole  land  was  moved  religiously,  and  thus  pre- 
pared to  perform  for  itself  and  for  mankind  the 
sternest  of  all  the  political  tasks  that  have  been  im- 
posed  in   this    century    upon    any   civilized   people. 

193 


194  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

But  our  short  American  story  is  no  exception  to  the 
universal  experiences  of  social  annealing. 

Discussing  the  subtler  meaning  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, Carlyle  says,  "  Once  risen  into  this  divine 
white-heat  of  temper,  were  it  only  for  a  season  and 
not  again,  a  nation  is  thenceforth  considerable 
through  all  its  remaining  history.  Wliat  immensi- 
ties of  dross  and  crypto-poisonous  matter  will  it  not 
burn  out  of  itself  in  that  high  temperature  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years !  Witness  Cromwell  and  his 
Puritans,  maldng  England  habitable  even  under  the 
Charles  Second  terms  for  a  couple  of  centuries  more. 
Nations  are  benefited,  I  believe,  for  ages,  by  being 
thrown  once  into  divine  white-heat  in  this  manner "' 
(Caklyle,  History  of  Frederick^  vol.  i.  book  3,  chap, 
viii.). 

That  is  the  historial  law  for  nations,  for  cities,  for 
individuals.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  a  white-heat :  it  is 
God's  method  of  burning  out  dross.     [Applause.] 

Standing  where  Whitefield  stood,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Charles,  a  somewhat  unlettered  but  celebrated 
evangelist,  years  ago,  face  to  face  with  the  culture  of 
Harvard,  was  accused  of  leading  audiences  into  ex- 
citement. "  I  have  heard,"  said  he  in  reply,  "  of  a 
traveller  who  saw  at  the  side  of  the  way  a  woman 
weeping,  and  beating  her  breast.  He  ran  to  her  and 
asked,  '  What  can  I  do  for  you  ?  What  is  the  cause 
of  your  anguish  ? '  —  '  iMy  child  is  in  the  well ;  my 
child  is  in  the  well ! '  With  swiftest  despatch  assist- 
ance was  given,  and  the  child  rescued.  Farther  on 
this  same  traveller  met  another  woman  wailing  also, 


THE  EELIGION  OF   THE  NATURE  OF  THINGS.   195 

and  beating  her  breast.  He  came  swiftly  to  her,  and 
■with  great  earnestness  asked,  '  What  is  your  trou- 
ble ? '  — '  ]My  pitcher  is  in  the  well ;  my  pitcher  is  in 
the  well ! '  Our  great  social  and  political  excite- 
ments are  all  about  pitchers  in  wells,  and  our  reli- 
gious excitements  are  about  children  in  wells."  [Ap- 
plause.] A  rude  metaphor,  you  sa}',  to  be  used  face 
to  face  with  Harvard ;  but  a  distinguished  American 
professor,  repeating  that  anecdote  in  Halle-on-the- 
Saale  in  Germany  yonder,  Julius  Miiller  heard  it 
and  repeated  it  in  his  university;  and  it  has  been 
used  among  devout  scholars  all  over  German3\ 
Starting  here  on  the  banks  of  the  Charles,  and  lis- 
tened to,  I  presume,  very  haughtily  by  Cambridge 
and  Boston,  it  has  taken  root  in  a  deep  portion  of 
German  literature  as  one  of  the  classical  illustrations 
of  tlie  value  of  a  white-heat.     [Applause.] 

"We  must  beware  how  we  fall  into  pride  at  the  size 
of  our  present  religious  audiences;  for  Boston  has 
seen  greater  assemblies  than  are  now  gathered  here 
in  revivals.  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  ver}^  significant 
portion  of  George  Whitefield's  journal,  written  in 
1740  in  this  city.  Let  us  not  forget  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  new  birth,  which  was  drawn  so  incisively  on 
the  mind  of  New  England  by  Whitefield  and  Ed- 
wards that  it  seems  commonplace  now,  was,  in  their 
time,  and  in  the  form  in  which  they  taught  the  truth, 
a  disturbing  novelty.  The  doctrine  of  the  new 
birth  as  an  acertainable  change  was  not  generally 
admitted  in  the  religious  portion  of  any  New-Eng- 
land community  when  the  awakening  of  1740  began. 


196  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

(See  Teact",  History  of  the  Great  Awakening,  pp.  46, 
130.)  Whitefield  taught,  to  the  dismay  of  New  Eng- 
land, that  a  man  does  not  become  a  saint  in  his  sleep ; 
and  that  credible  evidence  of  personal  entrance  upon 
a  life  of  love  of  what  God  loves,  and  of  hate  of  what 
God  hates,  should  be  required  before  a  man  is  made 
a  member  of  the  church;  and  that  especially  this 
change  must  take  place  in  a  minister ;  otherwise  he 
is  unfit  to  lead  the  living  or  the  dead.  These  doc- 
trines were  not  new  to  our  Puritan  fathers  in  1640. 
But  in  1740,  under  the  political  pressure  caused  by 
allowing  only  church-members  to  vote,  and  which 
led  to  the  vastly  mischievous,  half-way  covenant,  by 
which  persons  not  pretending  to  have  entered  on  a 
new  life  at  all  were  admitted  to  the  church,  we  had 
lost  the  scientifically  severe  ideals  of  Plymouth  Rock. 
It  was  a  novel  theory  to  us,  that  a  man  should  be 
inexorably  required  to  give  credible  evidence  of  a 
new  life,  as  a  condition  of  being  allowed  to  preach. 

"  I  insisted  much  on  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth," 
writes  Whitefield  (Journals  in  New  England,  London, 
1741,  p.  48),  "  and  also  on  the  necessity  of  a  minister'' 8 
being  converted  before  he  could  preach  aright.  Uncon- 
verted ministers  are  the  bane  of  the  Christian  church. 
I  think  that  great  and  good  m,an,  Mr.  Stoddard,  is 
much  to  be  blamed  for  endeavoring  to  prove  that  uncoiv- 
verted  men  might  be  admitted  into  the  ministry.  A 
sermon  lately  published  by  Mr.  Gilbert  Tennent, 
entitled  '  The  Danger  of  an  Unconverted  Ministry,' 
I  think  unanswerable."  "  The  spirit  of  the  Lord 
enabled  me  to  speak  with  such  vigor  against  sending 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  NATURE  OF  THINGS.  197 

unconverted  ministers  into  tlie  ministry,  that  two 
ministers,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  publicly  confessed 
that  they  had  lain  hands  on  two  young  men,  without 
so  much  as  asking  them  whether  they  were  born 
again  of  God  or  not "  (p.  53). 

Whitefield  spoke  with  such  vigor  on  this  topic, 
that  at  this  moment  we  need  no  speaking  on  it  at  all. 
Rhetorical  students  sometimes  express  amazement  at 
the  ineffectiveness  of  the  printed  addresses  of  White- 
field  when  read  to-day ;  but  they  contain  little  that  is 
new  now,  because  they  impressed  so  powerfully  so 
much  that  was  new  then.  Their  present  ineffective- 
ness arises  from  their  past  effectiveness. 

"  Mr.  Edwards,"  Whitefield  wrote  at  Northampton 
(this  is  Jonathan  Edwards,  of  whom  you  may  have 
heard)  "  is  a  solid  and  excellent  Christian.  I  think 
I  may  say  I  have  not  seen  his  equal  in  all  New  Eng- 
land "  (p.  45).  "  He  is  a  son  himself,  and  hath  also  a 
daughter  of  Abraham  for  his  wife.  A  sweeter  couple 
I  have  not  yet  seen.  Their  children  were  dressed  not 
in  silks  and  satins,  but  plain.  She  talked  feelingly 
and  solidly  of  the  things  of  God.  She  caused  me 
to  renew  those  prayers  which  I  have  put  up  to  God, 
that  he  would  be  pleased  to  send  me  a  daughter  of 
Abraham  to  be  my  wife.  I  find,  upon  many  accounts, 
it  is  my  duty  to  marry"  (p.  46).  "Minister  and 
people  wept  much"  (p.  46).  "Dear  Mr.  Edwards 
wept  during  the  whole  time  of  exercise  "  (p.  47). 

You  say  that  in  Boston  yesterday,  in  audiences  of 
six  tliousand  and  seven  thousand,  women  wept  too 
much,  and  that  men  were  excited ;  but  in  1740  men 


198  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

like  Jonathan  Edwards  wept ;  and  he  is  supposed  to 
have  had  a  head  as  well  as  a  heart. 

Gaze  a  moment  on  what  this  city  of  Boston  did 
when  she  was  hardly  more  than  a  village,  and  while 
the  frontier  settlements  of  New  England  were  yet  in 
danger  of  intrusions  from  the  savages.  All  that  was 
mortal  of  George  Whitefield  lies  on  the  shore  of  the 
sea  at  Newburyport  yonder,  at  rest  until  the  heavens 
be  no  more.  When  he  bade  adieu  to  New  England, 
he  spoke  on  the  Boston  Common,  the  very  soil  over 
which  every  day  you  and  I  are  walking  lightl}^,  and 
wondering  whether  we  cannot  go  hence  in  peace, 
whatever  we  do.  This  orator  writes  in  Boston,  Sun- 
day, Oct.  12, 1740,  while  no  doubt  the  transfiguration 
of  gold  and  susset  and  crimson  hung  upon  some  of 
the  trees,  of  which  we  can  now  almost  hear  the  whis- 
pering :  "  I  went  with  the  governor  in  his  coach  to 
the  Common,  where  I  preached  my  farewell  sermon 
to  nearly  thirty  thousand  people,  —  a  sight  I  have 
not  seen  since  I  left  Blackheath,  and  a  sight,  perhaps, 
never  before  seen  in  America.  It  being  duskish 
before  I  had  done,  the  sight  was  more  solemn.  Num- 
bers, great  numbers,  melted  into  tears  when  I  talked 
of  leaving  them.  I  was  very  particular  in  my  appli- 
cation, both  to  rulers,  ministers,  and  people ;  com- 
mended what  was  commendable ;  blamed  what  was 
blameworthy ;  and  exhorted  my  hearers  steadily  to 
imitate  the  piety  of  their  forefathers ;  so  that,  wheth- 
er I  was  present  or  whether  I  was  absent,  I  might 
hear  of  their  affairs,  that  with  one  heart  and  mind 
they  were  striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the  gos- 


THE   RELIGION  OF  THE  NATURE  OF  THINGS.  199 

pel"  (p.  53).  So  Boston  responded  to  the  memory 
of  Cromwell  and  Hampden  and  Milton.  She  was 
young,  and  she  yet  is  in  the  gristle.  Is  there  better 
blood  to  put  into  her  veins  than  that  of  our  fathers  ? 
[Applause.] 

THE   LECTURE. 

When  Ulysses  sailed  past  the  isle  of  the  sirens, 
who  had  the  power  of  charming  by  their  songs  all 
who  listened  to  them,  he  heard  the  sorcerous  music 
on  the  shore ;  and,  to  prevent  himself  and  his  crew 
from  landing,  he  filled  their  ears  with  wax,  and  bound 
himself  to  the  mast  with  knotted  thongs.  Thus, 
according  to  the  subtle  Grecian  story,  he  passed 
safely  the  fatal  strand.  But  when  Orpheus,  in 
search  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  went  by  this  island,  he, 
being,  as  you  remember,  a  great  musician,  set  up 
better  music  than  that  of  the  sirens,  enchanted  his 
crew  with  a  melody  superior  to  the  alluring  song  of 
the  sea-nymphs ;  and  so,  without  needing  to  fill  the 
Argonauts'  ears  with  wax,  or  to  bind  himself  to  the 
mast  with  knoited  thongs,  he  passed  the  sorcerous 
sliore,  not  only  safely,  but  with  disdain. 

The  ancients,  it  is  clear  from  this  legend,  under- 
stood the  distinction  between  morality  and  religion. 
lie  who,  sailing  past  the  island  of  temptation,  has 
enlightened  selfishness  enougli  not  to  land,  althougli 
he  rather  wants  to ;  he  who,  therefore,  binds  himself 
to  the  mast  with  knotted  thongs,  and  fills  the  ears  of 
his  crew  with  wax ;  he  who  does  this  without  hear- 
ing a  better  music,  is  the  man  of  mere  morality. 
Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  underrate  the  value  of 


200  TBANSCENDENTALISM. 

this  form  of  cold  prudence ;  for  wax  is  not  useless  in 
giddy  ears,  and  Aristotle  says  youth  is  a  perpetual 
intoxication.  Face  to  face  with  sirens,  thongs  are 
good,  though  songs  are  better. 

*'  Sin  hath  long  ears.     Good  is  wax, 
Wise  at  times  the  knotted  thongs ; 
But  the  sluewd  no  watch  relax, 

Yet  they  use  like  Orpheus  songs. 
They  no  more  the  Sirens  fear ; 
They  a  better  music  hear." 

When  a  man  of  tempestuous,  untrained  spirit  must 
swirl  over  amber  and  azure  and  purple  seas,  past  the 
isle  of  the  sirens,  and  knots  himself  to  the  mast  of 
outwardly  right  conduct  by  the  thongs  of  safe  resolu- 
tions, although  as  yet  duty  is  not  Ms  delight,  he  is 
near  to  virtue.  He  who  spake  as  never  mortal  spoke 
saw  such  a  young  man  once,  and,  looking  on  him, 
loved  him,  and  yet  said,  as  the  nature  of  things 
says  also,  "  One  thing  thou  lackest."  Evidently  he 
to  whom  duty  is  not  a.  delight  does  not  possess  the 
supreme  prerequisite  of  peace.  In  presence  of  the 
siren  shore,  we  can  never  be  at  rest  while  we  rather 
wish  to  land,  although  we  resolve  not  to  do  so.  Only 
he  who  has  heard  a  better  music  than  that  of  the 
sirens,  and  who  is  aifectionately  glad  to  prefer  the 
higher  to  the  lower  good,  is,  or  in  the  nature  of 
things  can  be,  at  peace.  Morality  is  Ulysses  bound 
to  the  mast.  Religion  is  Orpheus  listening  to  a 
better  melody,  and  passing  with  disdain  the  sorcerous 
shore.     [Applause.] 


THE  RELIGION   OF   THE  NATURE   OF  THINGS.  201 

Aristotle  was  asked  once  what  the  decisive  proof  is 
that  a  man  has  acquired  a  good  habit.  His  answer 
was,  "  The  fact  that  the  practice  of  the  habit  involves 
no  self-denial  of  predominant  force  among  the  facul- 
ties." Assuredly  that  is  keen ;  but  Aristotle  is 
rightly  called  the  surgeon.  Until  we  do  love  virtue 
so  that  the  practice  of  it  involves  no  self-denial  of  that 
sort,  it  is  scientifically  incontrovertible,  that  we  can- 
not be  at  peace.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  while 
Ulysses  wants  to  land,  wax  and  thongs  cannot  give 
him  rest.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  only  a  better 
music,  only  a  more  ravishing  melody,  can  preserve 
Orpheus  in  peace.  This  truth  may  be  stern  and 
unwelcome  ;  but  the  Greek  mythology  and  the  Greek 
philosophy  which  thus  unite  to  affirm  it  are  as  lumi- 
nous as  the  noon. 

What  is  the  distinction  between  morality  and 
religion,  and  how  can  the  latter  be  shown  by  the 
scientific  method  to  be  a  necessity  to  the  peace  of  the 
soul? 

1.  Conscience  demands  that  what  ourjht  to  he  should 
be  chosen  by  the  will. 

2.  In  relation  to  persons,  what  we  cJioose  we  love. 

3.  Conscience  reveals  a  Holy  Person,  the  Author 
of  the  moral  law. 

4.  Conscience,  therefore,  demands  that  rightness 
and  oughtness  in  motives  should  not  only  be  obeyed, 
but  loved. 

5.  It  demands  that  the  Ineffable  Holy  Person  re- 
vealed by  the  moral  law  should  not  oidy  be  obeyed, 
but  loved. 


202  tea:^scendentalism. 

6.  This  is  an  unalterable  demand  of  an  unalterable 
portion  of  our  nature. 

7.  As  personalities,  therefore,  we  must  keep  com- 
pany with  this  part  of  our  nature,  and  with  its 
demand,  while  we  exist  in  this  world  and  the  next. 

8.  The  love  of  God  by  man  is,  therefore,  inflexibly 
required  by  the  nature  of  things.  Of  all  the  com- 
mandments of  exact  science  this  is  the  first :  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  mind  and 
might  and  heart  and  strength. 

9.  Conscience  draws  an  unalterable  distinction 
between  loyalty  and  disloyalty  to  the  Ineffable  Holy 
Person  the  moral  law  reveals,  and  between  the  obe- 
dience of  slavishness  and  that  of  delight. 

10.  Only  the  latter  is  obedience  to  conscience. 

11.  But  morality  is^  the  obedience  of  selfish  slavish- 
ness. 

That  sounds  harsh ;  but  by  it  I  mean  only  that  a 
man  of  mere  morality  is  Ulysses  bound  with  thongs. 
He  intelligently  chooses  not  to  land ;  but  he  wishes 
to  do  so.  He  loves  what  conscience  declares  ought 
not  to  be.  His  chief  motive  is  selfishness  acting 
under  the  spur  of  fear.  In  the  nature  of  things,  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom ;  but  the 
end  of  wisdom  is  the  perfect  love  that  casteth  out 
fear.  [Applause.]  You  say  that  I  have  been  ap- 
pealing to  fear.  Very  well,  that  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,  and  I  do  not  revere  highly  any  love  of  God 
that  has  never  known  any  fear  of  God.  Show  me 
tliat  kind  of  love  of  God  which  has  not  felt  what  the 
fear  of  God  is,  and  I  will  show  you  not  principle,  but 


THE   RELIGION   OF   THE   NATURE   OF   THINGS.    203 

sentiment,  not  religion,  but  religiosity.  Of  necessity, 
loyalty  fears  dislo^-alty.  But  loyalty  is  love  for  the 
Holy  Person  the  moral  law  reveals ;  and  such  love 
conscience  inexorably  demands  as  what  ought  to  be. 

12.  Religion,  as  contrasted  with  morality,  is  the 
obedience  of  affectionate  gladness.  It  is  the  proud, 
rejoicing,  unselfish,  adoring  love  which  conscience 
demands  of  man  for  the  Ineffable  Holy  Person  which 
conscience  reveals. 

13.  As  such,  only  religion,  and  not  morality,  can 
harmonize  the  soul  with  the  nature  of  things. 

So  much  may  be  clearly  demonstrated  by  exact 
research. 

Shakspeare  says  of  two  characters  who  conceived 
for  each  other  a  supreme  affection  as  soon  as  they 
saw  each  otlier, 

"At  the  first  glance  they  have  changed  eyes." 

Tempest,  act  i.  sc.  2. 

The  Christian  is  a  man  who  has  changed  eyes  with 
God.  In  the  unalterable  nature  of  things.,  he  who  has 
notxhanged  eyes  with  God  cannot  look  into  Ids  face  in 
peace. 

What  is  that  love  which  conscience  says  ought  to 
be  given  by  the  soul  to  the  Ineffable  Holy  Person 
which  tlie  moral  law  reveals  ?  Is  it  a  love  for  a  frag- 
ment of  that  person's  character,  or  for  the  whole? 
for  a  few,  or  for  the  whole  list,  of  his  perfect  attri- 
butes ? 

14.  In  the  nature  of  things,  a  delight  in  not  only 
a  part,  but  in  all,  of  God's  attributes,  is  necessary  to 
peace  in  his  presence. 


204  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

15.  A  religion  consisting  in  the  obedience  of  affection- 
ate gladness,  or  a  delight  in  all  God's  attributes^  is 
therefore  scientifically  known  to  he  a  demand  of  the 
nature  of  things. 

It  will  not  be  to-morrow,  or  the  day  after,  that 
these  fifteen  propositions  will  cease  to  be  scientifically 
certain.  Out  of  them  multitudinous  inferences  flow, 
as  Niagaras  from  the  brink  of  God's  palm.  In  a 
better  age,  philosophy  will  often  pause  to  listen  to 
these  deluging  certainties  poured  from  the  Infinite 
Heights  of  the  nature  of  things.  The  roar  and 
spray  of  them  almost  deafen  and  blind  whoever  stands 
where  we  do  now :  but  they  are  there,  although  we 
are  deaf;  they  are  there,  although  we  are  blind. 

Three  inferences  from  these  fifteen  propositions 
are  of  suprem(!  importance  : 

1.  It  is  a  sufficient  condemnation  of  any  scheme  of 
religious  thought  to  show  that  it  presents  for  worship 
not  all,  but  oiJy  a  fragment,  of  the  list  of  the  divine 
attributes. 

2.  A  religion  that  is  true  to  the  nature  of  things 
in  theory  will,  of  course,  be  found  to  work  well  in 
practice.  The  true  in  speculation  is  that  which  is 
harmonious  with  the  nature  of  things.  The  fortu- 
nate in  experience  is  that  which  is  in  harmony  with 
the  nature  of  things.  The  true  in  speculation,  there- 
fore, wdl  turn  out  to  be  the  fortunate  in  experience 
when  applied  to  practice.  If  a  scheme  of  thought 
does  not  work  well  in  the  long  ranges  of  experience, 
if  it  will  not  bear  translation  into  life  age  after  age, 
that  scheme  of  thouglit  is  sufiiciently  shown  to  be  in 
collision  with  the  nature  of  things. 


THE   RELIGION   OF   THE   NATURE  OF   THINGS.    205 

3.  By  all  the  tests  of  intuition,  instinct,  experi- 
ment, and  syllogism,  religious  science  must  endeavor 
to  obtain  the  fullest  view  possible  to  man  of  the 
■whole  list  of  the  divine  attributes. 

What  scheme  of  religious  thought  will  bear  these 
tliree  tests  best  ? 

Does  such  underrating  of  the  significance  of  sin, 
as  Theodore  Parker's  absolute  religion  is  guilty  of, 
work  well  in  the  long  range  of  experience  ?  All  reli- 
gious teaching  that  in  a  wide  and  multiplex  trial  does 
not  bear  good  fruits  is  presumably  out  of  accord  with 
the  nature  of  things.  Does  the  doctrine  that  every 
fall  is  a  fall  upward  hear  good  fruits?  Does  the 
assertion  that  sin  is  a  necessary,  and,  for  the  most 
part,  an  inculpable  stage  in  human  progress,  improve 
society?  Does  the  proposition  that  character  does 
not  tend  to  a  final  permanence,  bad  as  well  as  good, 
and  good  as  well  as  bad,  work  well  when  translated 
into  life  age  after  age  ? 

Gentlemen,  let  us  make  a  distinction  between  false 
and  true  liberalism.  Let  us  speak  with  proper  respect 
of  a  learned,  cultured  Chiistian  liberalism.  Let  us 
speak  with  j)roper  disrespect  of  a  lawless,  limp,  lav- 
ender liberalism.  It  has  been  the  fault  of  the  latter 
style  of  unscientific  liberalism  in  every  age,  and  it  is 
especially  the  fault  of  Theodore  Parker's  theism,  that 
it  represents  only  a  fragment  of  the  divine  attributes 
as  the  whole  list. 

The  supreme  question,  then,  my  friends,  if  you  are 
convinced  that  man  cannot  have  peace  unless  he  has 
a  delight  in  all  attributes  of  the  Holy  Person  revealed 


206  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

by  the  moral  law,  is  to  know  what  the  full  list  is. 
Wliether  Boston  cares,  or  Harvard,  to  know  what  the 
natural  conditions  of  the  soul's  peace  with  the  nature 
of  things  are,  I  do  not  know ;  but,  for  one,  I  feel  very 
sure  I  am  going  hence,  and  that  I  wish  to  go  hence 
in  peace,  and  that  I  cannot  go  hence  in  peace  unless 
I  love,  not  only  a  fragmen^;,  but  the  whole  list,  of  the 
divine  attributes. 

What  can  science  of  the  ethical  sort  do  toward 
presenting  us  with  a  full  view  of  the  divine  attri- 
butes ?  That  is  a  very  central  and  a  very  strategic 
question.  Suppose,  in  order  to  make  our  thoughts 
clear,  that  we  begin  our  answer  by  substituting  scien- 
tific for  biblical  phraseology.  Try  for  once  the  experi- 
ment, and  see  how  we  shall  come  out.  Everybody 
admits  there  is  a  nature  of  things.  Now,  what  if  we 
assert  simply  that  it  is  necessary  to  the  soul's  peace 
to  acquire  harmony  with  the  nature  of  things  ?  Say 
nothino-  about  God  now.  It  is  certain  that  there  is 
in  the  universe  what  science  calls  the  nature  of  tilings  ; 
and  it  is  tolerably  clear  that  that  has  not  changed 
much  for  some  years.  [Applause.]  It  is  without 
any  variableness  or  shadow  of  turning.  It  was ;  it 
is  ;  it  is  to  come.  For  one,  when  I  ask  the  question 
whether  I  can  know  God,  I  am  always  asking,  imme 
diately  after  that,  whether  I  can  know  the  nature  of 
things.  What  if  the  nature  of  things  is  but  another 
name  for  his  nature  ?  What  if  the  nature  of  things, 
which  has  not  changed  in  eternity  past,  and  is  not  to 
change  in  eternity  to  come,  is  but  a  revelation  of 
Him,  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE   NATITJRE  OF   THINGS.    207 

of  turnincj  ?  I  know  that  the  nature  of  thinfjs  is 
infinitely  kind  toward  virtue.  I  know  that  the  nature 
of  things  is  infinitely  stern  toward  vice.  What  if, 
while  science  gazes  on  the  nature  of  things,  and 
looks  fixedl}^  into  it,  she  finds  behind  it  the  will  of  a 
personal  God,  omniscient,  omnipotent,  omnipresent, 
invisible,  but  in  conscience  spiritually  tangible  ? 

1.  In  the  nature  of  things,  to  work  for  good  is  to 
work  asrainst  evil. 

O 

Does  anybody  doubt  this  ?  Is  not  that  a  proposi- 
tion just  as  clearly  true  as  that  a  straight  line  is  the 
shortest  distance  between  two  points,  or  that  a  thing 
cannot  be,  and  not  be,  at  the  same  time,  and  in  the 
same  sense,  as  any  other  intuitive  deliverance  of  our 
faculties  ? 

2.  In  the  nature  of  things,  God  cannot  work  for 
good  without  working  against  evil. 

I  am  assuming  only  that  God  cannot  deny  himself. 
That  cannot  is  to  me  at  once  the  most  terrible  and 
the  most  alluring  certainty  in  the  universe.  He  can- 
not deny  the  demands  of  his  own  perfections.  These 
are  another  name  for  the  nature  of  things.  We  feel 
sure,  that,  in  the  nature  of  things,  there  cannot  be  a 
here  without  a  there,  an  upper  without  an  under,  or 
any  working  of  God  for  good  without  working  by 
him  against  evil.  The  nature  of  things  is  not  fate, 
but  the  unchangeable  free  choice  of  infinite  perfec- 
tion in  God. 

Allow  no  one  to  mislead  3-ou  by  overlooking  tlie 
distinctions  between  certainty  and  neeessiti/,  will  and 
shall,  occanoning  and  necessitating,  infalUhly  certain 


208  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

and  inevitably  certain.  Let  no  one  assert  that  faith- 
fulness to  self-evident  truths  as  to  the  nature  of 
things  leads  to  a  system  of  thought  consisting  of 
adamantine  fatalism.  There  can  be  but  one  best  way 
in  which  to  conduct  the  universe.  Omniscience  will 
know  that  way.  Omnipotence  will  choose  and  ad- 
here to  that  way.  There  will  be  no  deviation  from 
that  way  in  the  course  of  the  government  of  the  uni- 
verse. There  will  thus  appear  to  be  fate  in  the  infin- 
ities and  eternities ;  but  there  is  there  in  reality  only 
the  infinitely  wise  and  holy,  and  therefore  unchan- 
ging, free  choice  of  Almighty  God. 

Even  man's  free  will  may  illustrate  the  law  of  cer- 
tainty without  falling  at  all  under  that  of  necessity. 

Near  the  great  sea  there  lives  yonder  at  Salisbury 
a  renowned  poet,  on  whom  the  light  of  the  golden 
Indian  summer  of  genius  is  now  shining.  It  was 
once  my  surprising  fortune  to  hear  this  revered  man 
say  seriously  that  he  could  not  quite  agree  with  An- 
dover  and  Jonathan  Edwards  in  wholly  denying  the 
freedom  of  the  will.  I  made  no  attempt  to  correct 
this  error ;  for  I  had  proper  reverence  for  that  poet 
whom  Germany  regards  as  the  deepest  heart  among 
all  American  writers  of  lyrics  (see  Beockhaus'  Con- 
versations Lexicon,  art,  "  Whittier  "),  a  man  in  whom 
there  is  an  unquenchable  Hebrew  fire,  which  quite  as 
effectively  as  any  other  flame,  moved  before  us  as  a 
pillar  of  radiance  in  the  dark  days  of  our  antislavery 
contest.     [Applause.] 

Now,  it  may  be  that  Andover  does  not  understand 
Jonathan   Edwards;  but   she   does  not  understand 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  KATUEE  OF  THINGS.   209 

him  to  deny  the  freedom  of  the  will.  And  as  for 
denjdng  the  freedom  of  the  will  herself,  you  might 
as  well  ask  whether  Andover  denies  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  or  whether  Jefferson  Davis 
asserted  that  federal  power  ought  to  be  supreme  over 
State  rights,  or  whether  Plymoutl^  Rock  will  float. 
There  is  no  monstrosity  greater  as  a  misconception 
than  to  affirm  that  New-England  theology  denies  the 
freedom  of  the  will:  and  yet  I  see  that  affirmation 
made  almost  monthly  by  irresponsible  scribblers,  and 
now  and  then  responsibly,  over  names  which  I 
honor. 

3.  In  the  nature  of  things,  God  is  not  God,  unless 
he  works  for  good. 

4.  Therefore,  in  the  nature  of  things,  he  is  not 
God,  unless  he  works  against  evil. 

5.  He  is  perfect ;  and  therefore,  with  all  his  attri- 
butes, he  works  for  good. 

6.  He  is  perfect ;  and  therefore,  with  all  his  attri- 
butes, he  works  against  evil. 

7.  Sin  exists  in  the  imiverse  by  the  abuse  of  free 
will. 

It  is  incontrovertible  that  conscience  declares  that 
we,  and  we  alone,  are  to  blame  when  we  do  what 
we  know  to  be  wrong.  Of  course,  I  keep  in  mind 
the  distinction  between  an  error  and  sin,  or  between 
a  mistake  of  the  moral  kind  and  a  wrong  of  the 
moral  kind.  When  I  speak  of  sin,  I  mean  a  free 
choice  of  motives  which  conscience  pronounces  to  be 
bad.  In  every  bad  free  choice  there  comes  upon  the 
soul,  after  the  act,  a  sense  of  personal  demerit.     If 


210  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

that  deliverance  of  the  self-evident  truths  of  the 
soul  is  not  to  be  received,  several  rather  large  results 
follow. 

If  you  deny  the  intuition  which  proves  that  the 
will  is  free,  you  cannot  prove  your  own  existence ; 
for  you  know  youf  own  existence  only  by  intuition. 
How  do  I  know  there  is  an  eternal  world  ?  By  in- 
tuition. How  do  I  know  tha^  I  am  in  existence  ? 
By  intuition.  How  do  I  know  that  I  am  personally 
to  blame  when  I  do  what  conscience  pronounces 
wrong  ?  By  intuition.  We  are  not  to  play  fast 
and  loose  with  this  supreme  test  of  truth.  Intuition 
is  the  soul's  direct  vision  of  all  truths  which  to  man 
have  these  three  characteristics,  —  self-evidence^  neces- 
sity, universality.  An  intuition  may  mean  a  truth,  self- 
evident,  tiecessary,  and  universal ;  or  it  may  mean  the 
act  of  the  mind  in  beholding  such  a  truth.  When  I 
say  any  thing  is  affirmed  by  intuition,  I  mean  that 
it  is  guaranteed  by  that  capacity  of  the  soul  through 
which  we  have  a  direct  vision  of  self-evident,  axiom- 
atic, necessary  truth.  It  is  an  intuitive  truth  that 
the  will  is  free ;  and,  as  Johnson  used  to  say,  "  there 
is  the  end  of  it."  We  know  we  are  to  blame  when 
we  choose  the  wrong ;  and  there  is  an  end  of  that. 
If  you  know  by  self-evident,  axiomatic,  necessary, 
universal  truth  that  you  exist,  you  know  by  the 
same  evidence  that  you  are  free,  and  that  3'ou  have 
incurred  personal  demerit  whenever  you  choose  a 
motive  which  conscience  j)ronounces  to  be  a  bad  one. 

What  you  take  for  granted  in  business,  and  in 
law,  and  in  literature,  you  must  allow  me  to  take  as 
proved  in  religious  science. 


THE  EELIGION   OF   THE  KATURE  OF  THINGS.   211 

Does  an3-body  doubt  that  he  is  free  in  business  ? 
Very  well :  will  an3'body  doubt,  then,  that  he  is  free 
in  religion  ?  Does  anybody  doubt  that  God  gives 
the  harvest,  but  that  nevertheless  man  must  sow  and 
plant  ?  Does  not  the  husbandman  every  spring  go 
forth  and  act  as  if  every  thing  depended  on  him  ? 
and  does  not  God  work  with  him  to  fill  the  valley 
with  fatness  ?  Just  so  in  the  spiritual  realm :  a  man 
must  go  forth  and  sow  good  seed ;  and  God  will  give 
the  increase.  There  is  no  collision  in  business  be- 
tween freedom  of  will  and  fate ;  and  so,  as  the  laws 
of  the  universe  are  the  same  in  both  fields,  there  is 
no  collision  in  religion.  Predestination  does  not 
mean  deatiny.  This  is  one  of  the  most  mischievous 
words  in  theology ;  and  the  trouble  is  with  the  sylla- 
ble "  dest."  I  never  use  the  word  predestination ; 
for  that  s}' liable  "  dest "  implies  destiny,  and  destmy 
implies  necessity.  In  religious  science  the  word 
"  predestination  "  does  not  mean  necessity,  but  only 
certainty. 

8.  While  sin  continues^  God  cannot  forgive  it  without 
making  the  sinner  worse. 

In  this  city  six  thousand  people  were  told,  the 
other  evening,  with  great  depth  of  thought,  that  if  a 
child  deliberately  lies,  and  you  forgive  the  child  be- 
fore he  has  exhibited  any  sorrow  for  the  act,  you 
make  the  child  worse.  That  is,  indeed,  a  very  simple 
instance  of  the  moral  law ;  but  in  scientific  minds 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  moral  law  is  equally  uni- 
versal with  the  physical.  If  you  will  measure  a  little 
arc  of  the  jjhysical  law,  you  can  measure  the  whole 
cii'cle. 


212  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

If  I  were  to  take  flight  into  space,  I  should  not 
run  beyond  the  knowledge  that  I  have  acquired  here 
of  the  law  of  gravitation.  That  law  is  one  in  all 
worlds  so  far  as  science  knows.  So,  too,  if  I  under- 
stand  the  properties  of  light  here,  I  understand  them 
in  Orion  and  the  Pleiades.  A  good  terrestrial  text- 
book on  light  or  gravitation  would  be  of  service  in 
the  North  Star.  The  universality  and  the  unity  of 
law  make  our  earth,  although  but  an  atom,  immensity 
itself  in  its  revelations  of  trufch.  (See  Dajsta,  G-eol- 
ogy^  chap.  1.)  Now,  if  I  know  that  a  man  has  delib- 
erately lied  to  me,  I  cannot  here,  under  the  moral 
law,  forgive  him  before  he  repents,  without  making 
him  worse.  If  I  know  that,  then  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  God  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  things,  for- 
give a  free  agent  that  has  incurred  personal  demerit 
by  the  choice  of  wrong  motives,  till  he  has  repented, 
without  making  that  agent  worse.  [Applause.] 
The  nature  of  things,  gentlemen  —  it  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever. 

Here  is  a  Boston  sonnet,  entitled  "  A  Far  Shore ;  " 
and  it  asserts  the  universality  of  the  moral  law  as 
well  as  of  the  physical  and  the  organic  ;  and  so  it 
applies  not  only  to  Greece  and  Italy,  and  the  shadow 
of  the  Pyramids,  but  also  to  the  shore  of  that  undis- 
covered country  from  whose  bourn  no  traveller 
returns  : 

On  a  far  shore  my  land  swam  far  from  sight, 
But  I  could  see  familiar  native  stars ; 
My  home  was  shut  from  me  by  ocean  bars, 

Yet  home  hung  there  above  me  in  the  night; 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  NATURE   OF  THINGS.   213 

Unchanged  fell  down  on  me  Orion's  light; 
As  always,  Venus  rose,  and  fiery  Mars ; 
My  own  the  Pleiads  yet ;  and  without  jars 

In  wonted  tones  sang  all  the  heavenly  height. 

So  when  in  death,  from  underneath  my  feet 

RoUs  the  round  world,  I  then  shall  see  the  sky 
Of  God's  truths  burning  yet  familiarly; 

My  native  constellations  I  sliall  greet : 
I  lose  the  outer,  not  the  inner  eye. 
The  landscape,  not  the  soul's  stars,  when  I  die. 

[Applause.] 

9.  The  self-propagating  power  of  habit,  acting  in 
the  sphere  of  holy  affections,  places  the  nature  of 
things  on  the  side  of  righteousness. 

10.  The  same  self  -  propagating  power  of  habit,- 
acting  in  the  sphere  of  evil  affections,  arranges  the 
nature  of  things  against  evil. 

11.  Good  has  but  one  enemy,  the  evil ;  but  the 
evil  has  two  enemies,  the  good  and  itself.  [Ap- 
plause.] (See  Julius  Mijller,  Doctrine  of  Sin, 
vol.  ii.) 

12.  Judicial  blindness  increases  the  self-propagat- 
ing power  of  evil ;  remunerative  vision  increases  the 
self-propagating  power  of  holiness. 

"  Every  man,"  says  the  Spanish  proverb,  "  is  the 
son  of  his  own  deeds."  "Every  action,"  says  Rich- 
ter,  "  becomes  more  certainly  an  eternal  mother  than 
it  is  an  eternal  daughter"  (Titan,  vol.  i.  cycle 
105).  These  are  the  irreversible  laws  according  to 
which  all  character  tends  to  a  final  permanence, 
good  or  bad. 

13.  God  cannot  give  the  wicked  two  chances  with- 
out subjecting  the  good  to  two  risks. 


214  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

14.  Self-evident  truth  shows  that  man  is  free. 

15.  Self-evident  truth  proves  that  man  may  attain 
a  final  permanence  of  character,  good  or  bad,  and  in 
that  state,  not  lose  freedom  of  will. 

16.  This  may  occur  in  the  best  possible  universe^  in 
which  all  things  will  of  course  work  together  for  good  to 
the  good,  and  therefore,  of  necessity,  for  evil  to  the  evil. 

Adhere  to  the  proposition  that  there  cannot  be  an 
upper  without  an  under.  Can  God  arrange  the  uni- 
verse so  that  all  things  in  it  shall  work  together  for 
the  good  of  the  good,  without  arranging  it  so  that 
all  things  shall  work  together  for  the  evil  of  the  evil  ? 
Can  God  be  God,  and  not  arrange  the  universe  so 
that  all  things  in  it  shall  work  together  for  the  good 
of  the  good  ?  Can  God  be  God,  and  not  so  arrange 
the  universe,  that  all  things  shall  work  together  for 
the  evil  of  the  evil  ?  Follow  the  deliverance  of  your 
intuitional  philosophy,  that  the  soul  is  free.  I  know 
how  a  man  is  tempted  here,  and  how  a  silly  sciolism 
will  overturn  the  testimony  of  the  intuitions  them- 
selves, rather  than  admit  that  man  is  responsible  for 
all  action  that  conscience  pronounces  wrong.  But^if 
you  overturn  the  deliverance  of  the  intuitions  there, 
please  overturn  it  elsewhere.  You  will  not  play  fast 
and  loose  much  longer,  gentlemen ;  for  our  age  is 
coming  to  be,  thank  God,  unwilling  to  take  any  thing 
for  granted,  and  more  and  more  loyal  to  clear  ideas. 
[Applause.]  Our  greatest  philosophies,  metaphysi- 
cal and  physical,  all  stand  on  the  basis  of  self-evident" 
truths,  or  intuition  ;  and  although  your  physicist  who 
never  has  studied   metaphysics  does  not  know  who 


THE  RELIGION   OF   THE  NATURE   OF  THINGS.   215 

sharpened  his  tools,  or  sometimes  what  his  tools  are, 
he  every  day  is  using  self-evident  truth,  and  stands 
on  the  intuitions  at  which  he  scoffs.  You  say  that 
the  intuitional  philosophy  sails  by  dead  -  reckoning. 
Well,  dead-reckoning  by  axioms  is  scientific.  You 
say  that  the  philosophy  of  self-evident  truths  is  off 
soundings,  and  that  you  prefer  to  keep  in  water 
where  you  can  feel  the  bottom.  I  tell  you  that  your 
sounding-lines  themselves  are  spun  by  what  you  call 
dead-reckoning,  or  the  philosophy  of  self-evident, 
axiomatic,  necessary  truths.  [Applause.]  Your 
physicist  has  no  scientific  rule,  the  validity  of  which 
is  not  guaranteed  by  self-evident  truth ;  and  so  when 
you  say  I  sail  by  dead-reckoning,  and  am  off  sound- 
ings, and  that  3^ou  are  sounding  and  sounding,  and 
that  you  know  there  is  an  external  world,  and  that 
you  believe  only  what  you  can  see  and  touch  and 
handle,  I  go  behind  your  sounding-line,  and  ask, 
"  Who  spun  that  ?  "  I  ask,  "  How  are  you  certain 
there  is  any  external  world?"  You  say,  "It  is 
evident."  So  I  say,  "  It  is  self-evident."  [Applause.] 
On  self-evidence  you  stand,  and  on  self-evidence  I 
stand;  and,  if  you  and  I  can  shake  hands  at  this 
point,  we  shall  never  part.  [Applause.]  If  we  are 
true  to  the  deliverance  of  all  the  intuitions,  and  not 
merely  to  a  portion  of  them,  we  shall  vividly  behold 
truth  of  which  neither  materialism  nor  pantheism 
dreams.  We  shall  see  God  in  not  merely  a  few  of 
his  attriljutes,  but  in  that  whole  range  of  them, 
which  the  nature  of  things  exposes  to  human  vision ; 
and  we  shall  find  if  a  thing  just  as  glorious  to  be 


216  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

reconciled  with  God  as  it  is  to  be  reconciled  with 
the  nature  of  things,  and  just  as  little  likely  to 
occur  in  a  man  asleep,  or  by  accident  and  hap- 
hazard, and  dreaming  and  poetizing. 

We  shall  find  it  a  thing  at  least  as  terrible  to  fall 
under  the  power  of  God  as  it  is  to  fall  under  the 
power  of  the  nature  of  things.  Assuredly  the  nature 
of  things  will  not  break  the  bruised  reed,  nor  quench 
the  smoking  flax,  of  loyalty  to  itself;  the  nature 
of  things  assuredly,  too,  may  be  a  consuming  fire 
to  all  disloyalty  to  itself.  [Applause.]  It  may  be 
an  omnipresent  kiss  or  an  omnipresent  flame.  The 
savages  in  Peru  used  to  kiss  the  air  as  their  pro- 
foundest  sign  of  adoration  to  the  collective  divinities. 
The  nature  of  things  is  above  and  around  and 
beneath  us ;  and  our  sign  of  adoration  to  it  must  be 
not  slavish  self-surrender,  but  affectionate,  glad  pref- 
erence of  what  this  unbending  perfection  requires. 

You  say  the  permanent  existence  of  sin  would  be 
an  impeachment  of  the  divine  benevolence.  Why  is 
not  the  beginning  of  it  an  impeachment  ?  The  mys- 
tery, my  friends,  is  not,  that,  under  the  law  of  judicial 
blindness  and  the  self-propagating  power  of  habit, 
sin  may  continue :  the  mystery  is,  that  sin  ever  was 
allowed  to  begin.  It  has  begun.  There  is  no  doubt 
on  that  subject,  and,  when  you  will  explain  to  me  the 
consistency  of  your  philosophy  with  the  beginning 
of  sin,  I  will  explain  to  you  the  consistency  of  a 
final  permanence  of  free  evil  character  with  that 
same  philosophy.     [Applause.] 

What  we  do  know  is,  that,  the  more  a  man  sins 


THE   EELIGION   OF   THE   NATURE   OF   THINGS.    217 

against  light,  the  less  sensitive  he  is  to  it.  What 
we  do  know  is,  that  over  against  judicial  blindness 
stands  remunerative  vision,  and  we  cannot  change  one 
law  without  changing  the  other.  The  nature  of 
things  is  the  flame  ;  the  nature  of  things  is  the  kiss  : 
God  is  God  by  being  both.  [Applause.]  What 
God  does  is  successfully  done.  What  God  does  is 
well  done. 

Mrs.  Browning,  whom  England  loves  to  call 
Shakspeare's  daughter,  and  who  is  in  many  respects 
the  deepest  interpreter  of  the  modern  cultivated 
heart  and  head,  rests  in  God's  goodness. 

"  Oh  the  little  bu-ds  sang  east,  the  little  birds  sang  west! 
And  I  said  in  underbreath,  All  our  life  is  mixed  with  death, 
And  who  knoweth  which  is  best  ? 

Oh  the  little  birds  sang  east,  the  little  birds  sang  west! 
And  I  smiled  to  think  God's  goodness  flows  around  our  incom- 
pleteness ; 
Roimd  our  restlessness  his  rest." 

Had  she  paused  there,  she  would  not  have  been  the 
prophetess  of  science  as  she  is ;  for,  without  resting 
in  an  unscientific  liberalism,  she  says  also : 

"  Let  star-wheels  and  angel-wings,  with  their  holy  winnowings, 
Keep  beside  you  all  your  way, 

Lest  in  passion  you  should  dash,  with  a  blind  and  heavy  crash, 
Up  against  the  thick-bossed  shield  of  Grod's  judgment  in  the 
field." 

Rime  of  the  Duchess  May. 
[Applause.] 


^ 

f 


IX; 


THEODORE  PAEKER  ON  COMMUNION  WITH  GOD  AS 

PERSONAL. 

THE    SIXTY-SEVENTH    LECTURE    IN    THE    BOSTON    MONDAY 
LECTURESHIP,    IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE    FEB.   26. 


"  Religion  ist  anfangs  Gottlelire ;  recht  ist  sie  Gottseligkeit.  Auf 
Marktplatz  und  Schlachtfeld  steh'  ich  mit  zugeschlossener  Brust, 
worin  der  Allliochste  und  Allheiligste  mit  mir  spriclit,  und  vor  mir 
als  nahe  Sonne  ruht."  —  Richter:  Levana. 


"  So  schaff'  ich  am  sausenden 
Webstuhl  der  Zeit." 

GrOBTHE:  Faust. 


IX. 

THEODORE   PARKER  ON   COMMUNION 
WITH   GOD  AS  PERSONAL. 

PRELUDE  ON  QUERENT  EVENTS. 

One  day  in  Parliament  William  Pitt  said,  "  I  have 
no  fear  for  England  :  she  will  stand  till  the  day  of 
judgment."  But  Edmimd  Burke  replied,  "  What  I 
fear  is  the  day  of  no  judgment."  The  relation  of 
the  temperance  reform  to  the  future  of  great  cities 
has  an  unsounded  depth  of  interest  from  Edmund 
Burke's  point  of  view.  In  1800  one  twenty-fifth  of 
the  population  of  the  United  States  was  in  towns 
numbering  eight  thousand  or  more  inhabitants;  in 
1870  one-fifth  (Walker,  Statistical  Atlas,  1876). 

Of  course  I  need  not  emphasize  the  fact  that 
many  of  our  churches  are  doing  their  duty  on  the 
topic  of  temperance  in  great  towns.  I  do  not  over- 
look starry  exceptions.  I  remember  that  Roswell 
Hitchcock's  church  in  New  York  was  once  called 
together  in  order  that  two  persons  who  had  joined 
it  might  have  work  assigned  them  on  the  church 
philanthropic  committees.  There  was  no  other  busi- 
ness before  the  gathering   than  to  set  two  persons  at 

221 


222  TBANSCENDENTAUSM. 

work ;  the  only  ones  out  of  a  very  large  cliurch  who 
had  not  something  definite  to  do  in  our  sorely-tried 
metropolis.  Other  individual  churches  are  active, 
but  the  mass  of  our  churches  are  singularly  inefficient 
[applause] ,  in  moral  reform  in  cities.  The  other  day 
I  saw  a  heap  of  manuscript  books,  in  which  the 
names  of  the  most  abandoned  streets  and  lanes  in 
this  city  were  written  down,  and  in  which  a  compe- 
tent number  of  fit  persons  were  assigned  to  the  work 
of  visitation  in  these  desolate  quarters.  Now,  is  it 
not  a  circumstance  rather  humiliating  that  a  man 
who  is  comparatively  a  stranger  in  this  city  must 
come  half  way  across  the  continent  to  set  us  here  in 
Boston  at  work  which  we  ought  to  know  better 
than  he  does  how  to  do?  Is  it  not  a  fact  somewhat 
inexpressible  in  its  wincing  outcome,  as  it  touches 
our  poor  pride,  to  know  that  many  a  town  in  New 
England,  Boston  not  excepted  from  the  list,  is  allow- 
ing a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  for  in- 
stance, that  wishes  to  do  just  such  work  as  this,  to 
starve  ?  You  are  not  giving  half  money  enough  to 
the  agents  you  employ  for  religious  effort  among  the 
poor  and  degraded  in  cities ;  and  you  do  not  work 
yourselves.  You  act  through  the  finger-tips  of  a  few 
saints ;  women  missionaries,  city  missionaries ;  and 
you  are  starving  them.  There  is  not  a  city  missionary, 
there  is  not  an  established  religious  agency  of  yours 
among  the  perishing  and  dangerous  classes  and  their 
fleecers,  that  has  adequate  financial  support,  to  say 
nothing  of  sympathy.  You  say  this  is  plain  speech  ; 
but  I  had  rather  speak  plainly  than  bring  upon  my- 


COMMUNION    WITH   GOD   AS   PERSONAL.         223 

self  the  charge  of  being  inattentive  to  what  has  been 
brought  so  prominently  before  New  England  in  the 
great  audiences  in  the  noon  yonder  in  the  Taber- 
nacle, when  reformed  men  have  spoken  and  been  ad- 
dressed, in  the  presence  of  thousands,  in  tears.  We 
need  every  season  just  such  effort  as  is  now  mak- 
ing temporarily  here  for  the  abandoned  quarters  in 
this  and  other  cities. 

There  is  in  Boston  a  great  orator,  whose  name  is 
a  power  from  the  surf  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  the 
waterfalls  of  the  Yosemite.  Stand  in  front  of  his 
house,  in  the  street  where  Slavery  once  mobbed  him, 
and  you  may  count  thirty  grog-shops  within  sight 
of  his  windows.  Yes:  Wendell  Phillips  told  you 
the  other  day  that  he  could  count  thirty-nine,  and 
that  for  thirteen  of  these  only  is  Massachusetts  law 
responsible.  The  truth  is,  that  the  Church,  after  all, 
is,  or  should  be,  the  sheet-anchor  of  all  moral  reform. 
I  do  not  undervalue  Washingtonianism  ;  I  do  not 
undervalue  temperance  legislation ;  in  fact,  although 
there  may  be  no  one  prohibitory  law  with  all  the  de- 
tails of  which  I  should  sympathize,  yet  I  must  call 
myself  a  prohibitionist.  [Cheers  and  a  few  hisses. 
Mr.  Cook  turned  to  the  quarter  from  which  the 
hisses  proceeded,  and  said].  Wait  two  hundred  years, 
and  see  whether  you  will  hiss  prohibition  !  Wait 
until  Macaulay's  two  hundred  are  the  average  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  for  every  square  mile  between 
Plymoutli  Rock  and  the  Golden  Gate,  and  see 
whether  you  will  hiss  prohibition !  Wait  until  a 
quarter  of  our  population  shall   be  massed  in  cities, 


224  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

and  Edmund  Burke's  day  of  no  judgment  appears, 
and  see  whether  you  will  hiss  prohibition ! 

Massachusetts  now  has  laws  by  which  sales  of 
liquor  are  forbidden  at  all  times  to  minors  and  drunk- 
ards and  to  persons  to  whom  the  sellers  have  been 
requested  to  cease  selling  by  their  families  or  em- 
ployers. Are  you  executing  that  law  ?  The  letting 
of  real  estate  for  the  illicit  selling  of  liquor  is  made 
more  perilous  by  a  new  clause  requiring  the  magistrate 
to  serve  notice  of  the  conviction  of  any  party  of 
such  an  offence  on  the  lessor  of  the  premises.  The 
latter  is  thereupon  required,  by  the  old  law  of  com- 
mon nuisance,  to  eject  the  tenant,  under  penalty. 
Are  church-members  in  Massachusetts  who  own  real 
estate  in  degraded  quarters  never  implicated  in  the 
violation  of  that  righteous  public  law? 

America  wants  her  churches  to  organize  themselves 
for  permanent  and  aggressive,  just  as  they  occasion- 
ally have  organized  themselves  for  temporary  and 
timid,  work  for  the  squalid  and  debased.  I  read  in 
the  newspapers  the  other  day  that  some  noble  women, 
lineal  descendants,  no  doubt,  of  those  whom  Paul 
saw  on  Mars  Hill,  or  of  those  who  were  among  the 
most  efficient  of  all  the  powers  that  cowed  old  Rome 
by  the  purity  of  Christian  life,  have  gone  into  the 
jaws  and  throat  of  despair  in  certain  abandoned  quar- 
ters of  this  city,  and  have  found  homes  for  degraded 
women,  and  taken  the  almost  incredible  word  of  hope 
to  persons  like  some  to  whom  our  Lord  himself 
spoke.  This  work  is  going  on  silently  ;  it  must  not 
be  heralded.  What  is  needed  is  that  it  should  be 
made  permanent.     [Applause.] 


COMilTJNION   WITH  GOD   AS   PERSONAL.        225 

Lessing  said,  that  by  and  by,  when  the  world  has 
found  out  what  church  does  the  most  good,  it  will 
know  in  what  church  to  believe.  [Applause.]  Show 
me  the  church  that  is  willing  to  wash  the  feet  of  the 
degraded ;  show  me  the  church  that  goes  about  from 
house  to  house  doing  good ;  show  me  the  church 
organized  for  permanent,  aggressive,  audacious,  moral 
effort ;  show  me  a  church  that  has  not  lost  her  Mas- 
ter's whip  of  small  cords,  and  I  will  show  you  the 
church,  and  the  only  church,  that  can  save  America 
when  she  has  two  hundred  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile.     [Applause.] 

There  was  in  our  Christian  and  Sanitary  Commission 
in  the  civil  war  a  great  hint  for  our  years  of  peace. 
The  Sanitary  Commission  and  the  Christian  Com- 
mission followed  our  armies  like  white  angels ;  and 
why  should  not  the  flight  of  these  two  ministering 
spirits  be  in  some  sense  perpetuated  in  our  great 
cities,  which  are  always  battle-fields  ?  One  thousand 
years  ago  the  Norsemen  came  up  Boston  Harbor  in 
shallops,  every  one  of  which  had  on  its  sail  a  paint- 
ing of  a  cormorant  raven,  and  at  its  prow  a  wolf's 
head.  Bryant  says  the  Norse  pirates  sailed  up  yon- 
der azure  bay  a  thousand  years  ago.  Wliat  I  know 
is,  that  the  Norse  raven  yet  flies  in  America,  and  the 
Norse  wolf  yet  howls.  What  I  want  to  fly  side  by 
side  with  the  raven,  what  I  want  to  run  side  by  side 
with  the  wolf,  is  organized,  permanent,  aggressive, 
audacious,  deadly  Christian  effort.     [Applause.] 

New  England  has  seen  lately  some  new  indications 
that  temperance  discussion  in   the    church  will    be 


226  TBANSCENDENTALISM. 

heard  by  the  masses  outside  of  it.  Look  at  tlie  Mer- 
rimack River  and  its  cities,  and  notice  what  one  man. 
Dr.  Reynolds,  has  done  there.  You  do  not  believe  in 
all  his  methods,  although  experience  is  indorsing 
them  significantly?  Very  well:  will  you  invent 
better  ones?  [Applause.]  What  are  we  about, 
when  men,  and  some  women,  through  the  country, 
more  rapidly  than  under  the  scythe  of  war,  are  fall- 
ing into  their  graves  under  the  flame  of  these  gross, 
consuming  habits,  that  we  do  not  turn  all  the  moral 
power  of  the  church,  at  least  once  a  month  in 
cities,  on  this  conflagration  ?  We  have  power  to  put 
down  by  moral  suasion  a  great  amount  of  this  evil, 
and  our  responsibility  is  proportionate  to  our  power. 
Let  moral  suasion  once  have  free  course,  and  legal 
suasion  will  follow  of  the  right  sort.  Whenever 
temperance  has  tried  to  fly  on  one  wing,  that  is, 
either  with  legal  suasion  alone  on  the  one  hand,  or 
with  moral  suasion  alone  on  the  other,  her  flight  has 
been  a  sorry  spiral.  She  never  will  ascend  to  God, 
or  even  make  the  circuit  of  the  globe,  until  she 
strikes  the  air  with  majestic  equal  vans  keeping 
rhythm  with  each  other,  moral  suasion  and  legal 
suasion,  acting  side  by  side,  to  bear  her  on,  and  to 
winnow  the  earth  of  both  the  tempters  and  the 
temptable. 

Shrewd  men  ought  to  perceive  that  undefiled  reli- 
gion in  the  heart  is  the  only  adequate  dissuasive 
from  Circe's  cup  at  the  lips.  "To  conquer,"  said 
Napoleon,  "we  must  replace."  To  conquer  unholy 
passion    we   must  replace  it  by  holy  passion.     Un- 


coaoruNiON  with  god  as  pkrsonal.      227 

doubtedly  a  man  may  lose  in  the  religious  renova- 
tion of  bis  nature  his  appetite  for  strong  drink.  It 
is,  you  say,  a  very  vexed  question,  whether  a  con- 
verted man  loses  his  appetite  for  liquor.  Cases  of 
deep  inherited  disease  may  be  set  aside  as  not  under 
discussion  here.  Put  this  question  on  another  plane 
of  thought.  Have  you  not  known  some  men  morally 
transfigured  by  the  power  of  a  supreme  earthly  affec- 
tion ?  Have  you  not  seen  some  father  bereaved  of  a 
darling  boy,  and  changed  thereafter  to  the  finger- 
tips ?  Have  you  not  known  often  a  great  crisis  in 
life  to  take  a  bad  appetite  out  of  a  man,  even  when 
the  crisis  was  merely  secular  ?  There  are  some  de- 
rangements infinitely  more  infamous  than  inherited 
appetites  for  strong  drink ;  but  even  these  are  often 
removed  wholly  by  a  holy  love,  filial,  conjugal,  or  pa- 
ternal, if  once  the  affection  takes  hold  of  the  deepest 
inmost  in  the  soul.  Can  you  not  believe,  that,  when 
God  is  loved  supremely,  there  may  come  to  a  man 
such  an  awakening  of  the  upper  zones  of  his  nature, 
that  he  shall  no  longer  have  an  appetite  for  strong 
drink?  He,  and  only  he,  will  be  lifted  above  tempta- 
tion who  falls  in  love  with  God  with  all  his  heart. 

THE   LECTURE. 

The  Russian  poet  Derzhavin  has  the  honor  of 
having  written  an  ode,  to  the  rhythm  of  which  all 
cidtivated  circles  have  bowed  down,  from  the  Yellow 
Sea  westward  to  the  Pacific.  The  stanzas  of  it  you 
may  see  to-day  embroidered  on  silk  in  the  palaces  of 
the  Emperors  of  Japan  and  Cliina.     You  will  find 


228 


TEANSCENDENTALISM. 


the  poem  translated  into  Persian,  into  Arabic,  into 
Greek,  into  Italian,  into  German ;  and,  when  I  open 
the  most  popular  of  our  American  anthologies,  I  find 
that  the  book  closes  with  this  Russian  anthem : 

"  O  Thou  Eternal  One,  whose  presence  bright 
All  space  doth  occupy,  all  motion  guide, 
Unchanged  through  Time's  all-devastating  flight! 
Thou  only  God ;  there  is  no  God  beside ! 
Being  above  aU  beings !     Mighty  One 
Whom  none  can  comprehend  and  none  explore, 
Who  fiU'st  existence  with  thyseK  alone, 
Embracing  aU,  supporting,  ruling  o'er, 
Being  whom  we  call  Grod,  and  know  no  morel 


God !  thus  alone  my  lowly  thoughts  can  soar, 
Midst  thy  vast  works  admire,  obey,  adore; 
And  when  the  tongue  is  eloquent  no  more. 
The  soul  shall  speak  in  tears  in  of  gratitude." 

Translation  of  Sir  John  Botvring. 

When  a  poem  has  the  majestic  fortune  to  be 
adopted  as  a  household  word  of  culture  in  twenty 
nations,  we  are  scientifically  justified  in  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  deep  instincts  of  the  human  heart  from 
the  rising  to  the  setting  sun  assert  what  the  poem 
expresses.  Thus  we  judge  in  the  case  of  the  songs  of 
love ;  and  so,  I  insist,  we  must  judge  in  relation  to  the 
anthems  of  religion.  Indeed,  these  latter  sink  more 
penetratingly  into  history  than  the  former.  Nothing 
is  treasured  by  the  best  part  of  the  world  so  pains- 
takingly, from  the  epic  we  call  the  Book  of  Job  to 
Derzhavin's  poem  on  the  Divine  Nature,  as  the  litera- 
ture that  is  struck  worthily  to  the  keynote  of  ado- 


COIMIMirNTON  WITH   GOD   AS   PERSONTAL.        229 

ration  of  the  Infinite  Perfection  of  a  Personal  God. 
This  is  a  literary  fact  which  the  Matthew  Arnolds 
and  Herbert  Spencers  would  do  well  to  fathom.  The 
native  human  instincts  are  ascertainable  by  the  re- 
ception all  races  and  tribes  and  tongues  give  to  the 
literature  of  communion  with  God  as  personal.  Such 
instincts  are  a  scientific  'proof  of  the  existence  of  their 
correlate.  There  can  be  no  thought  without  a 
thinker.  There  is  thought  in  the  universe ;  there- 
fore, there  is  a  thinker  in  the  universe.  But  a 
thinker  is  a  person:  therefore  there  is  a  Personal 
Thinker  in  the  universe.  There  can  be  no  such 
organic  hungering  as  all  nations  have  for  communion 
with  God  as  personal  without  the  possibility  of  such 
communion.  Men  who  revere  the  natural  will  not 
scorn  Theism,  for  it  is  as  natural  as  any  thing  else 
in  nature.  The  veracity  of  our  theistic  instincts  is 
proved  by  their  naturalness.  Julius  Miiller  gives  as 
one  definition  of  religion  the  communion  of  the  soul 
with  God  as  personal. 

1.  Men  as  they  are  can  be  made  holy  only  by  lov- 
ing a  holy  person. 

2.  ISluthing  so  effectually  purifies  the  heart  as  love ; 
for  nothing  so  effectually  wooes  us  from  selfishness. 

3.  There    can   be   no   love  without  trust,  and  no 
trust  without  purity. 

4.  Love  produces  in  the  lover  the  mood  of  the  ob- 
ject loved. 

5.  Souls  grow  more  by  contact  with  souls  than  by 
all  other  means. 

6.  Growth,   strength,    bliss,   arise   naturally   from 
spiritual  love. 


230  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

7.  All  these  laws  of  the  higher  affections  apply  to 
the  communion  of  the  human  spirit  with  the  Ineffa- 
ble Holy  Person  whom  the  moral  law  reveals. 

8.  Under  these  irreversible  natural  laws,  religion 
is  affectionate  communion  with  God  as  personal. 

In  Locksley  Hall,  Tennyson,  speaking  merely  as 
an  observer  of  human  nature  in  its  social  zone,  utters 
one  of  the  profoundest  of  all  the  truths  of  its  reli- 
gious zone,  when  he  says, 

"  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life;  smote  on  all  the  chords  with 

might;  > 

Smote  the  chord  of  self,  which,  trembling,  passed  m  music  out 

of  sight." 

Is  there  any  hand  but  that  of  love  that  can  pro- 
duce this  effect  ?  Under  natural  lata  can  7nan  he 
made  unselfish  or  Tioly  in  any  other  way  than  hy  loving 
a  holy  person?  Tennyson  knows  of  no  other  way; 
religious  science  knows  of  no  other. 

The  truth  is,  my  friends,  we  are  acquainted  with 
no  furnace  which  will  burn  selfishness  out  of  a  man, 
except  this  fiery  bliss  we  call  a  supreme  spiritual 
affection.  There  is  admiration  of  men  by  each  other ; 
but  there  is  no  burning  the  selfishness  out  of  men 
until  they  come  to  trust  and  to  love,  and  to  that  in- 
tersphering  of  soul  by  soul  which  is  always  the  re- 
sult of  trust  of  the  transfigured  sort,  —  one  of  the 
rarest  things  on  earth.  Do  not  think  that  I  am  put- 
ting before  you  a  low  ideal  of  trust ;  for  I  speak  of 
those  forms  of  love  —  conjugal,  filial,  paternal  — 
which  the  poets  love  to  glorify. 


COMMUNION   WITH   GOD   AS   PEK&ONAL,.         231 

I  read,  the  other  day  two  Boston  sonnets  entitled 
"  Trust,"  which  made  of  the  crystalline  window  of 
one  of  the  deepest  human  experiences  an  opening 
through  which  to  look  into  the  sky  behind  the  sky. 

I  know  that  thou  art  true  and  strong  and  piu-e. 

My  forehead  on  thy  pahn,  I  fall  asleep: 

My  sentinels  with  thee  no  vigils  keep, 
Though  elsewhere  never  without  watch  secure. 
How  restful  is  thy  palm !     I  life  endure : 

These  stranger  souls  whose  veUs  I  shyly  sweep, 

These  doubts  what  secrets  hide  within  the  deep, 
Because,  aglow  within  the  vast  obscure, 

Thy  hand  is  whitest  light!     My  peace  art  thou; 

My  firm  green  isle  within  a  troubled  sea ; 

And,  lying  here,  and  looking  upward  now, 
I  ask,  if  thou  art  this,  what  God  must  be: 

If  thus  I  rest  within  thy  goodness,  how 

In  goodness  of  the  infinite  degree? 

But  there  are  lightnings  wherever  there  is  love ; 
for  character  cannot  have  one  side  without  having 
two  sides  ;  we  cannot  love  good,  and  not  abhor  evil ; 
and  so  the  second  sonnet,  equally  true  to  trust,  con- 
trasts with  the  first : 

This  crystal  soul  of  thine,  were  it  outspread 
Until  the  drop  should  fill  the  universe. 
How  in  it  might  the  angels'  wings  immerse; 

And  wake  and  sleep  the  living  and  the  dead ; 

Bereaved  eyes  bathe ;  rest  Doubt  its  tossing  head ; 
Swim  the  vast  worlds;  dissolve  Guilt's  icy  curse; 
And  sightless,  if  but  loyal,  each  disperse 

Fear  by  full  trust,  and,  by  devotion,  dread! 

And  yet  these  perfect  eyes  in  which  mine  sleep 
Would  not  be  sweet  were  not  their  lightning  deep. 


232  TRANSCEITOENTALISM. 

In  softest  skies  the  swiftest  fire-bolts  dwell. 
Thine  eyes  mix  dew  and  flame,  and  both  are  weU. 
If  thus  I  fear  this  soul,  0  Gk>d!  how  thee, 
Both  love's  and  lightning's  full  infinity? 

[Applause.] 

In  the  Portuguese  Sonnets,  the  most  subtle  and 
tender  and  sublime  expressions  of  affection  ever 
written  by  woman,  it  is  not  so  much  Mrs.  Browning 
who  sings,  as  Robert  Browning,  the  future  husband. 
When  Tennyson,  in  the  In  Memoriam  commemo- 
rates the  young  Hallam,  it  is  not  Tennyson  who 
sings,  so  much  as  Hallam.  When  Robert  Hall  and 
Canning  form  a  friendship  for  each  other  at  Eton, 
it  is  Canning  who  appears  in  Hall,  and  Hall  who 
appears  in  Canning.  When  Thomas  Carlyle,  John 
Sterling,  and  Edward  Irving,  are  friends,  it  is  Irving 
that  appears  in  Carlyle  at  times,  and  Carlyle  that 
appears  in  Irving ;  and,  when  Sterling  lies  dying,  it 
is  Carlyle  that  makes  up  more  than  half  his  soul. 
Always  when  two  human  personalities  are  united  by 
a  supreme  spiritual  affection,  they  intersphere  each 
other,  and  produce  the  moods  of  one  in  the  other ; 
and,  when  there  is  a  transfiguration  in  personal 
affection,  there  is  thus  a  smiting  of  the  chord  of  self, 
till  it  passes  in  music  out  of  sight.  Of  course,  there- 
fore, there  is  no  method  to  produce  growth,  strength, 
and  bliss  in  the  soul,  like  the  pure  contact  of  spirit 
with  spirit.  Carlyle  says  we  grow  more  by  contact 
of  soul  with  soul  than  by  all  other  means  united. 
Literature,  if  possessed  of  power,  is  the  mirror  of 
soul,  and  causes  those  who  love  it  to  grow  by  contact 
with  the  pulsating,  reflected  depths  of  genius. 


COMMUNION   WITH  GOD  AS  PERSONAL.        233 

But  a  Persian  proverb  says,  "  Look  into  the  sky 
to  find  the  moon,  and  not  into,  the  pool."  Look  into 
the  faces  of  .your  elect  living  friends,  and  into  the 
souls  of  those  whom  you  trust  most.  Make  much 
of  your  giant  friendships  of  all  kinds,  and  be  thank- 
ful if  you  have  one  genuine  friendship  of  any  kind, 
and  let  unforced  trust  enswathe  you,  if  you  would 
be  transfigured.  You  grow  more  in  these  high 
moments  of  personal  affection  when  you  look  at  the 
moon  in  the  sky  than  by  much  meditating  on  the 
moon  in  the  pool.  Friendships  with  authors  and 
heroes  in  a  far  past  are  undoubtedly  honorable  to 
us,  and  transfiguring,  and  in  loneliness  are,  perhaps, 
the  highest  human  solace  ;  but  they  are  not  the 
highest  possible  to  man ;  they  are  not  the  moon  in 
the  sky. 

Gentlemen,  you  all  foresee  that  I  am  to  affirm  that 
a  human  spirit  may  commune  with  the  Infinite 
Spirit,  and  that  all  these  laws  of  transfiguration  are 
to  be  kept  in  view  when  we  would  explain  the 
renovating  power  on  man  of  the  communion  of  the 
soul  with  God  as  personal.  You  anticipate  that  in 
a  moment  I  shall  be  asking,  in  the  name  of  the 
scientific  method,  that  you,  face  to  face  with  the 
Holy  Person  the  conscience  reveals,  should  give  free 
course  to  all  those  majestic  natural  laws  by  which 
soul  transfigures  soul  through  personal  affection. 
Gentlemen,  I  do  ask  this,  and  in  the  stern  name  of 
the  scientific  method.  Is  any  one  thinking,  that,  as 
a  benighted  soul,  brought  up  in  the  mossy  mediccval- 
ism   of  our  latest  theology,  I   cannot   worship  one 


234  TRAITSCENDENTALISM. 

God,  because  I  believe  in  three  Gods  ?  Do  not  pit  y 
medigevalism  too  much  ;  it  knows  the  difference 
between  Trinity  and  Tritheism.  I  wish  just  now  to 
thank  God,  if  you  can  worship  one  God  as  Derzhavin 
does.  I  rejoice  with  you,  if  you  can  go  as  far  as 
scientific  Theism  does,  and  worship  one  God,  who 
was,  who  is,  who  is  to  come.  Let  us  to-day  not  go 
farther  than  with  Derzhavin  to  admire,  obey,  adore 
One  King,  eternal,  immortal,  invisible,  and  in  con- 
science spiritually  tangible. 

Samuel  Johnson,  when  he  had  finished  his  great 
dictionary,  received  a  note  from  his  publisher  in  these 
words  :  "  Andrew  Miller  sends  his  compliments  to 
Samuel  Johnson,  with  the  money  in  payment  for  the 
last  sheet  of  his  dictionary,  and  thanks  God  he  is 
done  with  him."  To  this  rude  note  Johnson  replied, 
"  Samuel  Johnson  sends  his  compliments  to  Andrew 
Miller,  and  is  very  glad  to  notice,  as  he  does  by  his 
note,  that  Andrew  Miller  has  the  grace  to  thank 
God  for  any  thing."  [Applause.]  You  call  your- 
selves deists  ;  you  call  yourselves  theists  ;  you  hold, 
that,  in  the  name  of  science,  we  can  worship  one 
God,  who  must  be  behind  all  natural  law.  I  thank 
God  that  you  believe  as  much  as  that.  Perhaps 
more  lies  wrapped  up  and  capsulate  in  your  belief 
than  you  think.  Here  are  a  few  slight  notes  from 
a  Boston  marching-song,  on  which  my  eyes  fell  the 
other  day,  when  I  was  alone.  They  are  sung  in 
the  name  of  exact  science  ;  and  surely  we  can  sing 
together  any  thing  attuned  to  that  key-note. 


COMMUNION  WITH  GOD  AS  PERSONAL.        235 

Bounds  of  sun-groups  none  can  see ; 
Worlds  God  di-oppeth  on  his  knee ; 
Galaxies  that  loftiest  swarm, 
Float  before  a  loftier  Form. 

Mighty  the  speed  of  suns  and  worlds; 
Mightier  who  these  onward  hurls ; 
Pui-e  the  conscience's  fieiy  bath; 
Purer  fire  God's  lightning  hath. 

Brighter  He  who  maketh  bright 
Jasper,  beiyl,  chrysolite; 
Lucent  more  than  they  whose  hands 
Girded  up  Orion's  bands. 

Sweet  the  spring,  but  sweeter  still 
He  who  doth  its  censers  fill ; 
Good  is  love,  but  better  who 
Giveth  love  its  power  to  woo. 

Lo,  the  Maker!  gi-eater  He, 
Better,  than  His  works  must  be : 
Of  the  works  the  lowest  stair 
Thought  can  scale,  but  fainteth  there. 

Thee  with  all  our  strength  and  heart, 
God,  we  love  for  what  Thou  art; 
Ravished  we,  obedient  now, 
Only,  only  perfect  Thoul 

[Applause.] 

Will  you  sing  that  tremorless  song  of  science,  and 
keep  entranced,  stalwart  step  to  your  singing,  and 
then  turn  to  me  and  say  that  these  sublime  natural 
principles  by  which  human  affection  transfigures  the 


236  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

soul  do  not  apply  in  the  sphere  of  man's  relations  to 
the  Ineffable  Holy  Person  the  moral  law  reveals? 
There  is  such  a  law  ;  there  is  such  a  person.  It  fol- 
lows that  there  are  relations  between  that  holy  per- 
son and  ourselves.  In  the  name  of  ascertained  natural 
law,  I  affirm  that  men  as  they  are  can  be  made  holy 
only  by  loving  a  holy  person.  [Applause.]  In  the 
religious  as  well  as  in  the  social  zone  of  our  faculties, 
only  love  can  smite  all  the  chords  with  might,  or 
smite  the  chord  of  self  into  invisibility  and  music. 
But  the  love  which  can  do  this  is  not  admiration  only ; 
it  is  adoration. 

Theodore  Parker's  absolute  religion  fails  to  dis- 
tinguish properly  between  the  admiration  and  the  adora- 
tion of  the  Ineffable  Holy  Person  which  Parker  admits 
that  the  moral  law  reveals. 

1.  Admiration  does  not  always  imply  a  full  and 
vivid  view  of  the  Infinite  Holiness  of  the  Infinite 
Oughtness  revealed  by  the  moral  law.  Adoration 
always  does  imply  this. 

2.  Admiration  does  not  always  imply  a  glad  self- 
commitment  of  the  soul  to  the  Infinite  Holiness. 
Adoration  always  does. 

3.  Admiration  usually  has  but  a  fragmentary  view 
of  the  Divine  attributes  as  revealed  in  the  nature  of 
things.  Adoration  has,  or  is  willing  to  have,  a  fuU 
view. 

4.  Admiration  may  give  pleasure  for  a  time.  Ado- 
ration gives  bliss. 

6.  Admiration  may  have  delight  in  only  a  few  of 


COMMUNION    WITH  GOD   AS   PERSONAL.         237 

God's  attributes.  Adoration  is  supreme  delight  in 
all  God's  attributes. 

6.  Admiration  of  God  is  often  all  that  is  found,  or 
all  that  it  is  thought  necessary  to  require,  in  the  dis- 
tinctively literary  or  poetic  schemes  of  sceptical  reli- 
gious thought.  Adoration,  however,  and  not  merely 
admiration,  of  an  Infinitely  Holy  Person  revealed  by 
the  moral  law,  is  scientifically  known  to  be  necessary 
to  the  peace  of  the  soul  with  the  nature  of  things. 

What  are  the  signs  of  this  error  in  Parker's  writ- 
ings ? 

1.  Theodore  Parker  made  only  a  fragmentary  use 
of  the  intuitions  or  self-evident  truths  of  the  soul. 

2.  Hence  his  view  of  that  portion  of  the  divine 
nature  which  may  be  known  to  man  was  fragmen- 
tary. 

3.  The  inadequate  emphasis  he  laid  on  the  fact  of 
sin  shows  how  fragmentary  this  view  was. 

4.  Parker's  fragmentary  view  of  the  Divine  nature 
is  shown  in  his  constant  undervaluing  of  the  nature 
of  things  as  it  is  faithfully  represented  in  the  Old 
Testament. 

Goethe's  literary  insight,  you  will  probably  think, 
was  quite  as  keen  as  Matthew  Arnold's  is ;  and  he, 
long  before  Arnold,  applied  purely  literary  tests  to  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  as  religious  science  herself  has 
been  doing  for  a  hundred  years.  The  Old  Testament 
is  not  sterner  than  the  nature  of  things.  It  is  amazing 
that  Matthew  Arnold  believes  his  famous  literary 
test  to  be  a  new  one.     Goethe  said,  and  Parker  used 


238  TRANSCENDKNTA1.ISM. 

in  his  earlier  career  to  quote  the  words  admiringly, 
"  The  Hebrew  Scriptures  stand  so  happily  combined 
together,  that,  even  out  of  the  most  diverse  elements, 
the  feeling  of  a  whole  stni  rises  before  us.  They  are 
complete  enough  to  satisfy,  fragmentary  enough  to 
excite,  barbarous  enough  to  arouse,  tender  enough  to 
appease."     (See  Frothingham's  Parker^  p.  56.) 

The  Old  Testament  Scriptures  out  of  date  ?  Not 
till  the  nature  of  things  is !  [Applause.]  I  rode  once 
from  a  noon  on  the  Dead  Sea,  through  moonlight  on 
the  Mar  Saba  gorges,  to  Bethlehem  in  the  morning 
light.  I  passed  through  the  scenes  in  which  many 
of  David's  psalms  had  their  origin,  so  far  as  human 
causes  brought  them  into  existence.  On  horseback 
I  climbed  slowly  and  painfully  out  of  that  scorched, 
ghastly  hollow  in  which  the  Salt  Lake  lies.  I  found 
myself,  as  I  ascended,  passing  through  a  gnarled, 
smitten,  volcanic  region,  and  often  at  the  edge  or  in 
the  depth  of  ravines  deeper  than  that  eloquent  shaft 
yonder  on  Bunker  Hill  is  high.  At  a  place  where,  no 
doubt,  David  had  often  searched  for  his  flocks,  I 
found  the  famous  convent  of  Mar  Saba  clinging  to 
the  side  of  its  stupendous  ravine,  and  I  lay  down 
there  and  slept  untU  the  same  sun  rose  which  David 
saw.  I  looked  northward  from  above  Mar  Saba,  and 
saw  Jerusalem  above  me  yet  to  the  north ;  for  I  had] 
been  ascending  from  a  spot  greatly  below  the  level] 
of  the  Mediterranean.  As  I  drew  near  Bethlehem, 
through  brown  wheat-fields  in  which  a  woman  called 
Ruth  once  gleaned,  I  opened  and  read  the  book  which  ] 
will  bear  her  name  yet  to  thousands  of  years  to  come. 


COimvrTTNION    WITH   GOD   AS   PERSONAL.         239 

Johnson,  you  remember,  once  read  that  book  in  Lon- 
don, and  moved  a  parlor  full  of  people  to  tears  by  it, 
and  to  curiosit}^  enough  to  ask  who  was  the  author 
of  that  beautiful  pastoral.  In  my  saddle  there  in 
Syria  I  was  moved  as  Johnson's  hearers  were  in 
London ;  but  when  I  opened  the  Psalms,  one  by  one, 
and  looked  back  over  the  ravines  toward  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  northward  toward  Jerusalem,  and  upon  the 
hill  of  Bethlehem,  to  which  all  nations  after  a  gaze 
of  nineteen  hundred  years  in  duration,  were  looking 
yet,  and  at  that  season  sending  pilgrims ;  when  I 
remembered  how  that  terraced  hill  of  olive-gardens 
had  influenced  human  history  as  no  other  spot  on  the 
globe  has  done,  and  that  in  God's  government  of  this 
planet  there  are  no  accidents ;  when  I  took  up  the 
astounding  harp  of  Isaiah,  and  turned  through  the 
list  of  the  prophets  to  find  mysterious  passage  after 
passage  predicting  what  would  come  and  what  has 
come  ;  and  when  I  thought  of  those  critics  under  the 
western  sky  who  would  saw  asunder  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New,  and  put  into  the  shade  those 
Scriptures  which  Goethe  calls  a  unit  in  themselves, 
and  which  are  doubly  a  unit  when  united  with  the 
New  Testament,  I  remembered  Him  who,  on  the 
way  to  Emmaus,  opened  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, and  with  them  made  men's  hearts  bui-n. 
[Applause.] 

God  and  the  nature  of  thinr/s  have  no  cross-purposes. 
Truth  works  well,  and  ichat  works  well  is  truth. 

If  we  are  out  of  harmony  with  the  nature  of  things, 
we  may  be  scientifically  certain  that  we  are  out  of 
harmony  with  God. 


240 


TBANSCENDENTALISM. 


Only  a  religion  consisting  of  delight  in  all  God's 
attributes,  or  adoration  of  the  whole  nature  of  things 
as  representative  of  the  Divine  Nature,  can  satisfy 
the  demands  of  self-evident  truth. 

With  multitudes  of  other  careless  students  of  the 
nature  of  things,  Theodore  Parker  taught  the  admi- 
ration rather  than  the  adoration  of  God. 

I  do  not  forget  those  prayers  of  this  man,  which 
seem  to  ascend  always  as  into  a  dateless  noon  of 
mercy,  and  I  do  not  deny  the  existence  of  that  date- 
less noon ;  but,  even  if  I  were  to  forget,  uncounted 
ages  would  yet  remember  that  the  prayers  which 
caused  great  drops  of  blood  to  fall  down  to  the 
ground  were  not  quite  in  that  mood,  and  that  no 
doubt  He  who  offered  them  knew  the  full  reach  of 
the  Divine  Mercy,  and  that  it  would  go  as  far  as  the 
Divine  Justice  can,  but  that  there  are  moral  impossi- 
bilities to  a  Holy  Being. 

My  friends,  you  may  do  as  you  please  ;  but  I,  for 
one,  will  not  take  my  leap  into  the  Unseen  Holy 
without  looking  for  the  truth  around  the  whole  hori- 
zon of  inquiry  ;  and  1  find  that  the  most  sceptical  of 
you  are  agreed  that  there  is  a  stern  and  an  infinitely 
tender  nature  of  things ;  and  that,  even  if  God  exists 
not,  you  must  be  reconciled  with  the  nature  of  things ; 
and  that,  if  God  exists,  you  must  yet  be  reconciled 
with  it,  for  God  himself  has  no  cross-purposes  with 
it. 

If  a  vivid  view  of  the  nature  of  things  produced 
this  bloody  sweat,  perhaps  you  and  I  ought  not  to 
dream  through  life,  thinking  that  every  fall  is  a  fall 


COMMUNION   WITH  GOD   AS   TEESONAL.        241 

upward,  and  that  it  can  never  be  too  late  to  mend. 
All  history  proves  that  such  a  faith  does  not  work  well. 
A  faith  that  does  not  work  well  is  scientifically 
known  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  natural  law. 

What  effect  arises  hy  natural  law  in  the  soul  when  a 
man  is  brought  to  a  vivid  sense  of  the  nearness  of  the 
Holy  Person  the  moral  law  reveals  ?  This  question  I, 
for  one,  am  anxious  should  be  investigated  in  the 
light  of  exact  research ;  for  the  use  of  the  scientific 
method  in  answering  this  inquiry  opens  the  door  to 
the  proof  that  Christianity  is  the  religion  of  science. 

1.  The  more  a  man  has  of  the  religion  demanded 
by  the  nature  of  things,  that  is,  the  more  adoration 
he  has  of  the  Infinite  Holiness  of  the  Infinite  Ou^ht- 
ness  revealed  by  the  moral  law,  the  more  he  is 
thrown  into  silence  as  to  his  own  righteousness,  into 
self-condemnation,  and  into  unrest  and  fear  as  to  the 
future  effect  of  his  past  sins. 

Gentlemen,  I  affirm  that  this  is  a  fair  rendering  of 
the  history  of  the  human  heart  age  after  age.  When 
a  man  comes  near  to  God,  his  mood  is  not  that 
of  self-justification.  Wait  until  eternity  breathes  on 
your  cheek,  wait  until  you  come  face  to  face  with 
Somewhat  in  conscience  that  Shakspeare  says  makes 
cowards  of  us  all,  and  then  ask  whether  the  Infinite 
Holiness  of  the  moral  law  will  be  altogether  satis- 
factory to  you.  Put  the  question  here  and  now, 
whether  we,  in  our  characters  as  they  stand  at  this 
moment,  should  be  happy  if  we  were  in  heaven  with 
our  characters  unchanged.  Whitefield  asked  that 
question  on  Boston  Common  yonder  in  1740.     It  has 


242  TEAJ^SCENDENTALISM. 

been  asked  in  every  century  for  eighteen  hundred 
years,  and  now  is  asked  by  science  ;  and  every  one  in 
his  senses,  when  listening  to  the  still  small  voice, 
has  said,  "  As  for  me,  I  am  the  son  of  a  man  of  un- 
clean lips,  and  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  in  my 
own  righteousness  I  cannot  stand  alone  before  God." 
What  are  we  to  make  of  this  action  of  human  nature  ? 
It  is  a  fact,  and  it  is  an  immeasurably  significant  fact. 
That  is  the  way  of  history ;  and  I  defy  any  man  to 
show  that  I  am  not  true  to  the  unforced  outcome  of 
human  nature  outside  of  all  the  creeds,  when  I  say 
that  a  view  of  all  God's  attributes  humiliates  man, 
puts  him  out  of  conceit  with  his  own  righteousness, 
and  brings  him  more  and  more,  even  after  he  has 
reformed,  into  fear  lest  it  may  not  be  well  with  him, 
because  there  is  a  past  behind  him  which  ought  to  be 
covered.  We  are  made  so ;  and,  when  a  religion  will 
not  work  well  in  those  deep  hours  in  which  we  see 
the  structure  of  our  own  souls,  I  am  afraid  to  take  it 
in  my  lighter  hours.  Addison  said  that  a  religion 
should  work  well  in  three  places,  if  it  is  good  for 
any  thing,  on  death-beds,  in  our  highest  moments 
of  emotional  illumination,  and  when  we  are  keenest 
rationally.  A  religion  does  not  work  well  anj^where 
unless  in  all  these  three  places.  Take  your  scheme 
of  thought  that  assumes  that  it  is  never  too  late  to 
mend,  or  that  every  fall  is  a  fall  upward,  and  bring 
it  face  to  face  with  these  deepest  expressions  of 
human  nature,  age  after  age.  Does,  it  work  well 
there  in  these  deepest  moments  ?  If  I  find,  that,  age 
after  age,  a  scheme  of  thought  is  not  likely  to  make 


COMMUNION   ■WTTH  GOD   AS   PERSONAL.        243 

men  better,  is  not  improving  society,  is  not  taking 
hold  of  bad  lives  and  making  them  good,  that  is  for 
me  a  sufficient  proof  that  it  is  out  of  harmony  with 
natural  law.  If,  in  the  long  course  of  experience,  a 
scheme  of  thought  does  not  make  me  better,  does 
not  put  a  bridle  upon  passion,  does  not  lift  me  into 
harmony  with  all  the  divine  attributes,  I  know  from 
that  fact  scientifically  that  it  is  out  of  harmony  with 
the  Infinite  Oughtness  which  stands  behind  the 
moral  law.     [Applause.] 

2.  The  only  conception  of  God's  character  given 
under  heaven  or  among  men,  by  which  a  man  who 
worships  all  God's  attributes  can  be  at  peace,  is 
Christ's  conception. 

3.  The  superiority  of  Christianity  to  all  schemes 
of  natural  religion  is,  that  it  presents  the  idea  of 
God  as  an  Incarnate  God  and  as  an  Atoning  God, 
and  of  personal  love  to  that  Person  as  the  means  of 
the  purification  of  the  world. 

Christianity  does  not  teach  that  personal  demerit 
is  taken  off  from  us,  and  put  upon  our  Lord.  Such 
transference  is  an  impossibility  in  the  nature  of 
things.  But  I  hold  that  Christianity,  with  the  Atone- 
ment as  its  central  truth,  matches  the  nature  of 
things,  and  turns  exactly  in  the  wards  of  the  human 
soul.  It  has,  as  a  theory  of  religious  truth,  a  scien- 
tific beauty  absolutely  beyond  all  comment.  The 
returned  deserter,  knowing  his  own  permanent  and 
unremovable  personal  demerit,  may  yet  be  allowed 
to  escape  the  penalty  of  the  law  by  the  substitution 
of  the  king's  chastisement  for  the  deserter's  punish- 


244  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

ment ;  and  tlien  that  deserter,  looking  on  his  king  as 
both  his  Saviour  and  Lord,  needs  no  other  motive  to 
loyalty  than  the  memory  of  his  unspeakable  conde- 
scension, justice,  and  love.     That  memory  gives  rise 
to  adoration.    Whether  or  not  this  scheme  of  thought 
be  the  correct  one,  I  am  not  asking  you  now  to  deter- 
mine ;  but  certainly  it  is  the  most  moving,  the  most 
natural,  and  the  most  qualified  to  regenerate  human 
nature,  of  all  the  schemes  the  world  has   seen.     I 
speak  of  it  here  and  now  only  as  an  intellectual  sys- 
tem, and  affirm,  in  the  name  ai  the  cool  precision  of 
the  scientific  method,  that  Christianity,  and  it  only,  as 
a  scheme  of  thought,  shows  how  man  ynay  look  on  all 
God's  attributes,  and  be  at  peace.     It  and  it  only  pro- 
vides for  our  deliverance  from  both  the  love  of  sin  and 
the  guilt  of  sin.     Merely  as  a  school  of  ideas  adapted] 
to  the  soul's  inmost  wants,  Christianity  is  as  much 
above  all  other  philosophy  in  merit  as  the  noon  is 
more  radiant  than  a  rushlight.     "  The  cross,"  said  aj 
successor  of  Theodore  Parker  to  me  the  other  day, 
"  is  full  of  the  nature  of  things."     God  be  praised! 
that  this  incisively  scientific  sentence  has  come  from] 
the  lips  of  a  successor  of  Theodore  Parker  !     "  The 
cross  is  not  an  after-thought."     We  are  to   love   aj 
God  who  from  eternity  to  eternity  is  our  Redeemer : 
and,  looking  on  him  as  such,  we  are  to  take  him  aifec- 
tionately  as  both  Saviour  and    Lord.     Christianit;) 
includes  all  ethics  ;  it  teaches   adoration  before  all! 
the  divine  attributes ;  it  is  a  philosophy ;    it  is  anj 
art ;  it  is  a  growth  ;  and  it  is  also  a  revelation  of  the! 
nature  of  things  which  has  no  variableness  nor  shad- 


COMMUNION   WITH  GOD  AS  PERSONAL.        245 

ow  of  turning.  But  its  central  thought  is  that  of  a 
Holy  Person  revealed  by  the  moral  law,  and  at  once 
Redeemer  and  Lord,  and  of  love  for  that  Person  as 
the  means,  and  the  only  possible  effective  means,  for 
the  purification  of  the  world.  God  as  an  atoning 
God,  God  as  revealed  in  history,  the  Cross  full  of  the 
nature  of  things,  the  personal  love  of  Infinite  Perfec- 
tion as  a  regenerating  bath,  this  is  the  beautiful  and 
awful  which  has  triumphed,  and  will  continue  to  tri- 
umph.    [Applause.] 


X. 

THE   TRINITY   AND   TRITHEISM. 

THE    SIXTY-EIGHTH    LECTURE    IN    THE    BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TURESHIP,   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE   MARCH   6. 


I 


"ovK  tx(^  TTpoaEiKuaai, 
ttuvt'  ETnaTad[J.iJfievoc, 
ttA^v  Aibg,  ei  to  fiiiTav  and  <j>povTidog  uxOog 
XPV  jSuXecv  eTrjTVjicjg. 
ov(5'  boTtg  -nupoiOev  rjv  fiiyctg, 
nanjMiX(fi  Opaaci  (ipvuv, 
ovdiv  av  Tl^ai  nplv  uv, 
bg  6'  etteit'  E(pv,  ~pia- 
KTTjpoq  olxErni  Tvxuv." 

^scHTLUs:  Agamemnon,  16^171. 

"  Simul  quoque  cum  beatis  Aadeamus 
Glorianter  vultum  Tuura,  Christe  Deus, 
Gaudium  quotl  est  immensum  atque  probum, 
Ssecula  per  infinita  sseculorum." 

Rhythm.  Eccl. 


J 


X. 

THE    TRINITY   AND    TRITHEISM. 

PKELUDE   ON   CURRENT   EVENTS. 

CrvTL-SERViCE  reform  is  to-day  to  be  nominally, 
and  perhaps  really,  crowned  in  Washington.  Both 
political  parties  have  demanded  on  paper  the  reforma- 
tion of  our  system  of  giving  all  political  spoils  to 
political  victors ;  and  that  reformation  we  can  now 
have,  if  Congress  and  the  people  are  agreed.  The 
executive  and  legislative  powers  and  popular  senti- 
ment once  united,  any  reform  can  be  carried  in  the 
United  States.  If  signs  commonly  thought  sure  do 
not  mislead,  it  may  be  asserted  that  popular  senti- 
ment and  the  Executive  are  now  united  in  favor  of 
what  is  known  as  civil-service  reform.  This  is  the 
best  news  since  Gettysburg.  The  question  now  is, 
whether  the  upper  and  nether  mill-stones  of  execu- 
tive and  popular  power  can  grind  to  pieces  any  self- 
ish or  obtuse  opposition  in  Congress,  or  among  the 
placemen  of  party  to  this  righteous  and  momentous 
cause.     In  expressing  a  hope  that  we  may   return 

249 


250  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

from  the  Jacksonian  to  the  Jeffersonian  and  Wash- 
ingtonian  policy  in  regard  to  our  civil  service,  I  shall 
offend  no  man's  prejudices.  I  assume  that  every  one 
who  is  disaj)pointed  in  the  result  of  the  presiden- 
tial contest  would  be  sincerely  glad  to  have  all  that 
was  promised  in  the  Democratic  platform  carried  out 
in  our  politics.  I  shall  also  assume,  with  equal 
audacity,  that  every  member  of  the  political  party 
now  in  power  holds  sincerely  the  propositions  an- 
nounced in  the  letter  of  acceptance  of  him  who  is 
to-day  inaugurated  as  the  President  of  a  people  who 
will  number  fifty  millions  before  his  term  of  office 
expires. 

Scholars  in  politics  assuredly  are  agreed  that  re- 
sistance to  the  crescent  and  now  haughty  evils  which 
have  arisen  from  the  application  of  Jacksonian 
principles  to  our  national  politics  cannot  be  made  too 
swift  and  decisive.  I  do  not  couple  Jefferson's  name 
with  Jackson's ;  for  the  truth  is,  that  we  are  now 
beginning  to  go  back  from  the  democracy  of  Jack- 
son to  that  of  Jefferson.  The  action  of  the  latter, 
so  far  as  the  civil  service  is  concerned,  was  one  with 
the  practice  of  Washington  and  Adams,  Madison 
and  Monroe.  Never  forget,  what  cannot  be  too 
often  repeated,  that  Washington,  in  all  the  eight 
years  of  his  administration,  removed  only  nine  men 
from  office ;  Adams,  only  nine ;  Jefferson,  thirty- 
nine,  but  none  for  political  reasons ;  Madison,  nine ; 
Monroe,  five ;  John  Quincy  Adams,  two ;  Jackson, 
according  to  his  opponents,  two  thousand,  and, 
according   to   his   own  admission,  six   hundred   and 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  251 

ninety.     (See    Greg,   Mocks   Ahead^   Appendix    on 
American  Politics.')  * 

Some  of  us  j-ounger  men,  who  never  saw  in  use  in 
the  civil  service  an}-  other  than  our  present  spoils 
system,  think  that  the  arrangement  by  which  all 
political  spoils  are  to  be  given  to  political  victors  is 
a  natural  law,  and  originated  in  that  time  when  the 
morning  stars  sang  together — not  for  joy.  jM}- 
State  of  New  York,  empire  in  both  commerce  and 
iniquity,  —  God  save  her !  —  saw  the  origination  of 
the  spoils  system  in  the  factious  quarrels  between 
the  ius  and  outs  among  the  Clintons  and  Livingstons, 
from  1800  to  1830.  Sitting  over  the  mahogany  of 
their  dinner-tables,  these  great  aristocratic  families  of 
the  Hudson  distributed  offices  among  their  adher- 
ents according  to  the  principle  that  to  party  victors 
belong  party  spoils.  Rotation  in  office  began  to  be 
practised  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  near  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  It  was  Jan.  24,  1832, 
when  Marcy,  making  a  speech  in  the  Senate  in  favor 
of  sending  Van  Buren  to  England  as  an  ambassador, 
first  defended  in  Congress  the  principle  that  to  po- 
litical victors  belong  political  spoils.  It  was  Aaron 
Burr  himself,  who,  in  1815,  writing  a  letter  to  liis 
son-in-law,  Allston  of  South  Carolina,  first  sufrsrested 
for  President  Andrew  Jackson,  —  one  of  the  bravest, 
but  not  one  of  the  broadest,  men  the  world  ever 
saw.  No  doubt,  if  Jackson  were  alive  to-day,  he 
would  be  among  the  first  to  seize  by  the  throat  the 
serpent  which  came  out  of  the  egg  which  was  hatched 
in  our  national  politics  in  his  administration,  although 


252  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

laid  first  in  New- York  State.  Civil-service  reform 
takes  patronage  from  party,  and  gives  it  to  the  people. 
It  was  between  1830  and  1840  that  the  initiative  of 
the  people  died  out  in  our  national  politics.  While 
we  were  busy  with  an  opening  West  and  with  an- 
thracite coal  and  railways,  and  modern  political  news- 
papers, and  the  electric  telegraph,  and  California,  the 
spoils  system  grew  up.  An  astounding  civil  war 
drew  on  apace.  We  had  no  time  to  study  minor 
dangers ;  it  was  necessary  to  make  Congress  strong. 

In  our  first  centennial  year  we  had  eighty  thou- 
sand, and,  before  a  second  or  third  centennial,  we 
shall  probably  have  two  hundred  thousand  or  three 
hundred  thousand  civil-service  offices.  Are  we  to 
follow  the  spoils  system,  and  turn  out  or  put  in  that 
number  of  partisan  placemen  with  every  change  of 
administration  ?  If  so,  we  shall  do  well  to  remem- 
ber Macaulay's  predictions,  that,  when  the  United 
States  have  a  population  of  two  hundred  to  the 
square  mile,  the  Jeffersonian  parts  of  our  polity  will 
produce  fatal  effects.  If  you  think  the  Jeffersonian 
will  not,  ask  yourself,  face  to  face  with  recent  events, 
whether  the  Jacksonian  will.  Massachusetts  has  not 
yet  a  population  of  two  hundred  to  the  square  mile. 
But  what  if  the  whole  land  were  as  thickly  settled 
as  Massachusetts,  and  we  were  to  manage  every  thing 
as  now,  by  the  Jacksonian  rule,  that  to  political  vic- 
tors belong  all  political  spoils  ? 

Twice  our  land  has  been  washed  in  blood  in  the 
first  hundred  years  of  its  history ;  and  yet,  after  that 
washing,  Lowell  calls  America  the  land   of  broken 


THE  TRIXITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  253 

promise.  There  is  not  on  the  globe  a  more  patriotic 
poet  than  he ;  and  you  may  count  the  graves  of  his 
relatives  who  fell  in  the  civil  war,  if  you  will  go 
yonder  to  the  eloquent  sods  the  spring  is  kissing  in 
Mount  Auburn.  Your  Lowell  says,  and  the  poem  is 
fit  to  be  read  in  Boston  on  this  inauguration  noon  : 

"  The  world  turns  mild.     Democracy,  the;f  say, 
Hounds  the  sharp  knobs  of  character  away. 
The  Ten  Commandments  had  a  meanhig  once, 
Felt  in  then*  bones  by  least  considerate  men. 
Because  behind  them  public  conscience  stood, 
And  without  wincing  made  their  mandates  good. 
But  now  that  statesmanship  is  just  a  way 
To  dodge  the  primal  cm-se,  and  make  it  pay, . 
Since  office  means  a  kind  of  patent  di'ill 
To  force  an  entrance  to  the  nation's  till; 
And  peculation  something  rather  less 
Risky  than  if  you  spelt  it  with  an  S, 
Now  that  to  steal  by  law  is  grown  an  art. 
Whom  rogues  the  sii'es,  their  milder  sons  call  smart." 

Tempora  Mutantur. 
[Applause.] 

Remembering  that  this  President  who  is  inaugu- 
rated to-day  went  into  the  civil  war,  and  brought 
back  alive  only  a  third  of  the  officers  who  enlisted 
under  him ;  remembering  that  he,  at  least,  has  not 
corruptly  or  even  anxiously  sought  his  present  higli 
position,  however  much  there  may  liave  been  of 
greed  and  fraud  behind  him  in  the  organization  that 
has  elected  him ;  remembering  that  he  has  a  charac- 
ter, a  new  thing,  rather,  in  high  places ;  remem- 
bering that  he   left   Ohio   as   Lincoln   did   Illinois, 


254 


TRANSCENDENTALISM. 


asking  the  prayers  of  all  men  that  the  Eternal 
Providence  might  watch  over  his  course ;  remember- 
in":  that  there  are  things  in  our  land  which  war 
could  not  settle,  and  which  only  wise,  victorious, 
patient  politics  can  arrange  in  a  manner  to  satisfy 
North  and  South,  East  and  West  alike  ;  remember- 
ing especially  that  this  party  which  the  present 
Chief  Magistrate  represents  has  been  sixteen  years 
in  power,  and  therefore  has  presumably  had  a  great 
deal  of  temptation  [applause],  shall  we  not  unite, 
not  only  our  prayer,  but  our  watching,  and  send 
a  keen  atmosphere  of  both  from  the  four  winds,  to 
breathe  on  our  legislative  power,  till  the  civil-ser- 
vice practice  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  shall  start 
up  as  a  flame  from  its  dying  embers,  and,  fed  by  the 
colossal  fuel  of  our  new  political  conditions,  become 
once  more  the  light  and  the  glad  fireside  of  the  land ; 
and  Macaulay  and  observant  Europe,  as  they  gaze 
into  our  future,  can  have  on  this  point  no  more 
ground  for  fear  ?     [Applause.] 


THE    LECTURE. 

There  is  a  dim  twilight  of  religious  experience  in 
which  the  soul  easily  mistakes  Ossa  and  Parnassus 
for  Sinai  and  Calvary.  ]\Iy  feeling  is,  that  orthodoxy 
itself  lives  much  of  the  time  in  this  undispersed  twi- 
lisfht :  and  that  the  unscientific  and  lawless  liberal- 
ism  of  many  half-educated  people  who  have  lost  the 
Master's  whii3  of  small  cords,  believe  in  aesthetic,  but 
not  in  moral  law,  and  proclaim,  that,  in  the  last  analy- 
sis, there  is  in  this  universe  nothing  to  be  feared  (Dr. 


THE   TRINITY   AND   TEITHEISM.  255 

Bartol  says  so),  and  therefore,  we  must  add,  nothing 
to  be  loved !  —  is  always  in  an  earlier  and  deeper 
shadow  of  that  misleading  haze.  The  graj^  brindled 
dawn  is  better  than  night ;  but  the  risen  sun  is 
better  than  the  gray,  brindled  dawn.  We  must 
startle  mere  aesthetics  and  literary  religiosity  out  of 
its  dream  that  it  is  religion,  by  exhibiting  before  it 
the  difference  between  the  admiration  and  the  adora- 
tion of  the  attributes  of  the  Holy  Person  the  moral 
law  reveals.  If  any  who  are  orthodox  in  their 
thoughts  worship  in  their  imagination  three  different 
beings,  they,  too,  must  be  startled  from  this  remnant 
of  Paganism  by  a  stern  use  of  the  scientific  method. 

As  Carlyle  says  of  America,  so  I  of  this  hushed, 
reverent  discussion,  —  do  not  judge  of  the  structure 
while  the  scaffolding  is  up.  A  glimpse  only  of  the 
opening  of  the  unfathomable  theme  which  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  Tri-unity  of  the  Divine  Nature 
and  Tritheism  suggests  can  be  given  here  and  now; 
and  more  than  this  will  be  expected  by  no  scholar. 
Reserving  qualifications  for  later  occasions,  I  jour- 
posely  present  to-day  only  an  outline  unobscured  by 
detail.  I  know  what  I  venture  in  definition  and 
illustration ;  but  I  am  asking  no  one  to  take  my 
opinions.  Nevertheless,  in  order  yet  further  to  save 
time,  I  am  to  cast  myself  abruptly  into  the  licart 
of  this  topic,  and  to  give  you  personal  conviction. 
After  all,  that  is  what  serious  men  want  from  each 
other ;  and  the  utterance  of  it  is  not  egotism  in  you 
or  in  me.  It  is  the  shortest  way  of  coming  at  men's 
hearts,   and   it   is   sometimes   the    shortest   wi.y    in 


256  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

wliicli  to  come  at  men's  heads,  to  tell  what  you  per- 
sonally are  willing  to  take  the  leap  into  the  Unseen, 
depending  upon. 

What  is  the  definition  of  the  Trinity  ? 

1.  The  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  are 
one  and  only  one  God. 

2.  Each  has  a  peculiarity  incommunicable  to  the 
others. 

3.  Neither  is  God  without  the  others. 

4.  Each,  with  the  others,  is  God. 

That  I  suppose  to  be  the  standard  definition  ;  and, 
if  you  will  examine  it,  you  will  find  it  describing 
neither  three  separate  individualities,  nor  yet  three 
mere  modes  of  manifestation ;  that  is,  neither  tri- 
theism  nor  modalism.  In  God  are  not  three  wills, 
three  consciences,  three  intellects,  three  sets  of  affec- 
tions. The  first  of  all  the  religious  truths  of  exact 
research  is  that  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  God.  It  is 
the  immemorial  doctrine  of  the  Christian  ages,  that 
there  are  not  three  Gods,  but  only  one  God  (Athana- 
sian  Creed).  He  is  one  substance,  and  in  that  one 
substance  are  three  subsistences ;  but  the  subsistences 
are  not  individualities.  All  the  great  symbols  teach 
decisively  that  we  must  not  unify  the  subsistences ; 
but  with  equal  decisiveness  they  affirm  that  we  must 
not  divide  the  substance.  In  our  present  low  estate 
as  human,  we  find  by  the  experience  of  centuries 
that  we  do  well  to  heed  both  these  injunctions,  and 
to  look  on  the  Divine  Nature  on  all  the  sides  on 
which  it  has  revealed  itself,  if  we  would  not  fall  into 
the  narrowness  of  materialism  on  the  one  hand,  or 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TEITHEISM.  257 

into  the  vague  ways  of  tritheism  or  pantheism  on  the 
other. 

How  shall  we  make  clear  in  our  intellectual  and 
emotional  experiences  the  truth  of  the  Trinity,  and  at 
the  same  time  keep  ourselves  in  the  attitude  of  those 
who  worship  one  God,  and  who  therefore  do  not 
break,  or  wish  to  break,  with  science,  and  yet  in  the 
position  of  those  who,  in  the  one  substance,  worship 
three  subsistencies,  and  therefore  do  not  break,  or 
wish  to  break,  with  the  very  significant  record  of  the 
most  fruitful  portion  of  the  church  through  eighteen 
hundred  years  ?  For  one,  accepting  the  definition 
of  the  Trinity  which  I  have  now  given  as  neither 
tritheistic  nor  modalistic, — if  the  learned  men  here  will 
allow  me  for  once  to  use  technical  language,  —  I  per- 
sonally find  no  difficulty  in  this  doctrine  in  the  shape 
of  self-contradiction  in  either  thought  or  terms ;  and 
I  find  infinite  advantages  in  it  when  I  wish  to  con- 
join biblical  and  scientific  truth  as  a  transfiguration 
for  life. 

It  is  sometimes  despairingly  said,  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  cannot  be  illustrated ;  and  this  is  true. 
It  is  the  proverb  of  philosophy,  that  no  comparison 
walks  on  four  feet ;  and  what  I  am  about  to  say  you 
will  take  as  intended  by  me  to  exhibit  only  the  par- 
allelisms which  I  point  out.  I  am  responsible  for  no 
unmentioned  point  in  a  comparison.  No  doubt  you 
can  find  as  many  places  where  the  illustration  I  am 
to  use  will  not  agree  with  the  definition  as  I  can 
places  where  it  does  agree.  Nevertheless,  after  dwell- 
ing on  perhaps  a  hundred  other  illustrations,  my  own 


258  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

thoughts  oftenest,  and  with  most  of  reverence,  come 
back  to  this. 

Take  the  mysterious,  palpitating  radiance  which 
at  this  instant  streams  through  the  solar  windows  of 
this  Temple,  and  may  we  not  say,  for  the  sake  of  illus- 
tration, that  it  is  one  substance  ?  Can  you  not  affirm, 
however,  that  there  are  in  it  three  subsistencies  ? 
It  would  be  possible  for  me,  by  a  prism  here,  to  pro- 
duce the  seven  colors  on  a  screen  yonder.  I  should 
have  color  there,  and  heat  here,  and  there  would 
be  luminousness  everywhere.  But  in  color  is  a 
property  incommunicable  to  mere  luminousness  or 
to  heat.  In  luminousness  is  a  property  incommuni- 
cable to  mere  heat  or  to  color.  In  heat  is  a  property 
incommunicable  to  mere  color  or  to  luminousness. 
These  three  —  luminousness,  color,  heat  —  are,  how- 
ever, one  solar  radiance.  Heat  subsists  in  the  solar 
radiance,  and  color  subsists  in  the  solar  radiance,  and 
light  subsists  in  the  solar  radiance.  The  three  are 
one ;  but  they  are  not  one  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
they  are  three. 

It  is  one  of  the  inexcusable  mistakes  of  a  silly 
kind  of  scepticism,  which  no  one  here  holds,  that 
there  are  in  the  Trinity  three  persons  in  the  literal 
or  colloquial  sense  of  that  word.  Sometimes  with 
tears,  and  sometimes  with  laughter,  one  pauses  over 
this  astounding  passage,  printed  in  his  manhood  by 
Thomas  Paine,  in  his  Age  of  Reason ;  and  yet  what 
he  heard  read  was,  I  presume,  an  atrociously  careless 
orthodox  discussion. 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  259 

"  I  well  remember,  when  about  seven  or  eight  years  of  age, 
hearmg  a  sermon  read  by  a  relation  of  mine,  who  was  a  great 
devotee  of  the  church,  upon  the  subject  of  what  is  called  redemp- 
tion by  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God.  After  the  sermon  was  ended, 
I  went  into  the  garden ;  and,  as  I  was  going  down  the  garden-steps 
(for  I  perfectly  recollect  the  spot),  I  revolted  at  the  recollection 
of  what  I  had  heard,  and  thought  to  myself  that  it  was  making 
God  Almighty  act  like  a  passionate  man  that  killed  his  son 
when  he  could  not  revenge  himself  any  other  way;  and,  as  I  was 
sure  a  man  would  be  hanged  that  did  such  a  thing,  I  could  not 
see  for  what  puqiose  they  preached  such  sermons.  This  was 
not  one  of  those  kind  of  thoughts  that  had  any  thing  in  it  of  child- 
ish levity:  it  was  to  me  a  serious  reflection,  arising  from  the  idea 
I  had,  that  Grod  was  too  good  to  do  such  an  action,  and  also  too 
almighty  to  be  under  any  necessity  of  doing  it.  I  believe  in 
the  same  manner  at  this  moment.  .  .  .  The  Christian  mytholo- 
gy has  five  deities;  there  is  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  God 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  God  Providence,  and  the  Goddess  Nature. 
But  the  Clu-istian  story  of  God  the  Father  putting  his  Son  to 
death,  or  employing  people  to  do  it  (for  that  is  the  plain  language 
of  the  stor}^) ,  cannot  be  told  by  a  parent  to  a  child ;  and  to  tell 
him  that  it  was  done  to  make  mankind  happier  and  better  is 
making  the  stoiy  still  worse,  as  if  mankind  could  be  improved 
by  the  example  of  murder  "  (Age  of  Reason,  part  i.). 

There  is  nothing  in  Paine's  Age  of  Reason 
worth  glancing  at  now,  except  this  curious  paragraph, 
in  which  he  details  the  circumstances  of  the  life-long 
unconscious  obtuseness  and  ignorance  out  of  which 
arose  his  opposition  to  Christianity.  Possibly,  if  he 
had  understood  the  distinction  between  the  Trinity 
in  God's  nature  and  tritheism,  this  sharp  and  crac- 
kling pamphleteer  for  freedom,  in  spite  of  his  narrow 
brow  and  coarse  fibre,  would  not  have  fallen  into  (his 
amazing  error,  which,  according  to  his  own  account, 


260  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

underlay  all  his  subsequent  career  as  an  infidel. 
Three  separate  beings,  he  thought,  Christianity 
teaches  us  to  believe  exist  in  one  God,  and  one 
enraged  person  of  these  three  had  murdered  another 
person. 

But  scholars  as  a  mass,  following  St.  Augustine, 
centuries  before  poor  Paine's  day,  copiously  affirmed 
that  the  word  person  in  the  discussion  of  the 
Trinity  does  not  mean  what  it  does  in  colloquial 
speech.  The  word  in  its  technical  use  is  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  old  ;  and  it  means  in  that  use  now  what 
it  meant  at  first. 

How  commonplace  is  St.  Augustine's  remark, 
repeated  by  Calvin,  that  this  term  was  adopted 
because  of  the  poverty  of  the  Latin  tongue  !  Every- 
body of  authority  tells  us,,  if  you  care  for  scholarly 
statement,  that  three  persons  never  meant,  in  the 
standard  discussions  of  this  truth,  three  personalities  ; 
for  these  would  be  three  Gods.  This  Latin  word 
persons  is  incalculably  misleading  in  popular  use  on 
this  theme.  For  one,  I  never  employ  it,  although 
willing  to  use  it  if  it  is  understood  as  it  was  by 
those  who  invented  the  term.  Let  us  use  Archbishop 
Whatelev's  word  "  subsistence ;  "  for  that  is  the 
equivalent  of  the  carefully-chosen,  sharply-cut,  Greek 
term  "  hypostasis  "  (^Note  to  Whateley's  Treatise 
on  Logic).  We  had  better  say  there  are  in  one  sub- 
stance three  subsistences,  and  not  mislead  our  gen- 
eration, with  its  heads  in  newspapers  and  ledgers,  by 
using  a  phrase  that  was  meant  to  be  current  only 
among  scholars.      All  these  scholars  will   tell   you 


THE  TEIXITY  AXD   TKITHEISM.  261 

that  it  is  no  evasion  of  the  difficulties  of  this  theme 
for  me  to  tlirow  out  of  this  discussion  at  once  the 
word  persons  as  misleading ;  for  that  word  had 
originally  no  such  meaning  in  the  Latin  tongue  as 
the  word  j^erson  has  in  our  own.  Cicero  says,  U(jo 
umis,  sustineo  tres  personas :  I,  being  one,  sustain 
tliree  characters,  —  my  own,  that  of  my  client,  and 
that  of  the  judge.  Our  English  language  at  this 
point  is,  as  the  Latin  was  not,  rich  enough  to  match 
the  old  Greek.  With  Liddon's  Bampton  Lectures  on 
"  The  Divinity  of  our  Lord,"  the  best  English  book 
on  this  theme,  though  not  exhaustive  of  it,  let  us  say, 
"  One  substance  and  three  subsistences,"  and  thus 
go  back  to  the  Greek  phrase,  and  be  clear. 

Can  the  four  propositions  of  the  definition  I  have 
given  be  paralleled  by  an  illustration  ? 

1.  Sunlight,  the  rainbow,  and  the  heat  of  sunlight, 
are  one  solar  radiance. 

2.  Each  has  a  peculiarity  incommunicable  to  the 
others. 

3.  Neither  is  full  solar  radiance  without  the  others. 

4.  Each  with  the  others  is  such  solar  radiance. 
Sunlight,  rainbow,  heat,  one  solar  radiance ;    Fa- 
ther, Son,  Holy  Ghost,  one  God  ! 

1.  As  the  rainbow  shows  what  light  is  when  un- 
folded, so  Christ  reveals  the  nature  of  God. 

2.  As  all  of  the  rainbow  is  sunlight,  so  all  of 
Christ's  divine  soul  is  God ! 

3.  As  the  rainbow  was  when  the  light  was,  or  from 
eternity,  so  Christ  was  when  the  Father  was,  or  from 
eternity. 


2G2  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

4.  As  the  bow  may  be  on  the  earth  and  the  sun  In 
the  sky,  and  yet  the  solar  radiance  remain  undi- 
vidso.  *so  God  may  remain  in  heaven,  and  appear  on 
ear'^h  as  Christ,  and  his  oneness  not  be  divided. 

6.  As  the  perishable  raindrop  is  used  in  the  revela- 
tion of  the  rainbow,  so  was  Christ's  body  in  the  reve- 
lation to  men  of  God  in  Christ. 

6.  As  at  the  same  instant  the  sunlight  is  itself,  and 
also  the  rainbow  and  heat,  so  at  the  same  moment 
Christ  is  both  himself  and  the  Father,  and  both  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

7.  As  solar  heat  has  a  peculiarity  incommunicable 
to  solar  color,  and  solar  color  a  peculiarity  incom- 
municable to  solar  light,  and  solar  light  a  peculiarity 
incommunicable  to  either  solar  color  or  solar  heat, 
so  each  of  the  three  —  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost  —  has  a  peculiarity  incommunicable  to  either 
of  the  others. 

8.  But  as  solar  light,  heat,  and  color  are  one  solar 
radiance,  so  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  are  one 
God. 

9.  As  neither  solar  heat,  light,  nor  color  is  itself 
without  the  aid  of  the  others,  so  neither  Father,  Son, 
nor  Holy  Ghost  is  God  without  the  others. 

10.  As  solar  heat,  light,  and  color  are  each  solar 
radiance,  so  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  are  each 
God. 

11.  As  the  solar  rainbow  fades  from  sight,  and  its 
light  continues  to  exist,  so  Christ  ceases  to  be  mani- 
fest, and  yet  is  present. 

12.  As  the  rainbow  issues  from  sunlight,  and  re- 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  2G3 

turns  to  the  general  bosom  of  the  radiance  of  the 
sky.  so  Christ  comes  from  the  Father,  appears  for 
a  while,  and  returns,  and  yet  is  not  absent  from  the 
earth. 

13.  As  the  influence  of  the  heat  is  that  of  the 
light  of  the  sun,  so  are  the  operations  of  the  IIol}'' 
Spirit  Christ's  continued  life. 

14.  As  is  the  relation  of  all  vegetable  growths  to 
solar  light  and  heat,  so  is  the  relation  of  all  religious 
growths  in  general  history,  in  the  church,  and  in  the 
individual,  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  present  Christ. 

It  was  my  fortune  once,  on  an  October  Sabbath 
evening,  to  stand  alone  at  the  grave  of  Wordsworth, 
in  green  Grasmere,  in  the  English  lake  district,  and 
to  read  there  the  Ode  on  Immortality,  which  your 
Emerson  calls  the  highest-water  mark  of  modern 
poetry  and  philosophy.  While  my  eyes  were  fas- 
tened on  the  page,  the  sun  was  setting  behind  the 
gnarled,  inaccessible  English  cliffs,  not  far  away  to 
the  west,  and  a  colossal  rainbow  was  spread  over  the 
azure  of  the  sky,  and  the  glowing  purple  and  brown 
of  the  heathered  hills  in  the  east.  A  light  rain  fell 
on  me,  and  with  my  own  tears  wet  the  pages  of  the 
poet.  What,  now,  if  some  one,  as  I  worshipped 
there,  had  come  to  me,  in  a  holy  of  holies  in  my  life, 
and  had  said  roughly,  in  Thomas  Paine's  wa}^  "  You 
believe  in  five  Gods;  you  are  not  scientific"?  Or 
what  if  some  one  had  said,  in  Parker's  way,  "  The 
perfection  of  God  has  never  been  accepted  by  any 
sect  in  the  Christian  world.  In  the  Ecclesiastic 
conception  of   Deity  there  is  a  fourth  person,  tlic 


264  TEANSCEISTDEXTALISM. 

Devil,  as  much  a  part  of  Deity  as  either  Son  or  Holy 
Ghost"  (Weiss's  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  ii.  p.  470). 
"  Vicarious  atonement  teaches  salvation  without 
morality,  only  by  belief  in  absurd  teaching  "  (Ibid., 
p.  497). 

"According  to  the  popular  theology  there  are 
three  acknowledged  persons  in  the  Godhead.  God 
the  Father  is  made  to  appear  remarkable  for  three 
things, — great  power,  great  selfishness,  and  great 
destructiveness.  The  Father  is  the  grimmest  object 
in  the  universe "  (^Sermons  on  Theism^  p.  101). 
"He  is  the  Draco  of  the  universe, — more  cruel  than 
Odin  or  Baal,  — the  author  of  sin,  but  its  unforgiving 
avenger.  Men  rush  from  the  Father ;  they  flee  to 
the  Son."  "The  popular  theology  makes  Jesus  a 
God,  and  does  not  tell  us  of  God  now  near  at  hand. 
Science  must  lay  his  kingly  head  in  the  dust.  Rea- 
son veil  her  majestic  countenance.  Conscience  bow 
him  to  the  earth,  Affection  keep  silence,  when  the 
priest  uplifts  the  Bible "  (^Discourses  on  Religion^ 
pp.  425-427). 

How  would  all  that  speech  of  the  Parkers  and  the 
Paines  have- jarred  upon  my  soul,  if  standing  there 
alone  in  a  strange  land,  and  at  the  grave  of  Words- 
worth, I  had  heard  the  profane  collision  of  their 
accusations  with  the  holy  sentences  of  this  seer,  fed 
from  the  cradle  to  the  tomb  upon  Christian  truth ! 
If,  at  Wordsworth's  grave,  disturbed  by  such  ghoulish 
attack,  I  had  needed  a  spell  to  disperse  the  accusa- 
tions, what  better  Procul,  procul,  este  profani  could 
I  have  chosen  than  these  words,  once  uttered  in  this 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  265 

city  by  a  renowned  teacher  of  this  accused  theology, 
a  man  of  Avhom  it  might  be  said,  as  he  once  said 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  that  he  might  have  been  the 
first  poet  of  his  nation,  if  he  had  not  chosen  to  be  its 
first  theologian  !     [Applause.] 

A  majestic  discourse  delivered  at  the  installation 
of  the  revered  pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church  yon- 
der says,  "  Other  men  may  be  alone  ;  but  the  Chris- 
tian, wherever  he  moves,  is  near  to  his  JMaster. 
Every  effect  is  the  result  of  some  free  will ;  but 
many  effects  withhi  and  without  us  are  not  produced 
by  a  created  will :  therefore  they  are  produced  by  an 
uncreated.  On  the  deep  sea,  under  the  venerable 
oak,  in  the  pure  air  of  the  mountain-top,  the  Chris- 
tian communes  with  the  Father  of  spirits,  who  is 
the  Saviour  of  men.  All  ethical  axioms  are  his  reve- 
lation of  himself  to  his  children.  Their  innocent 
joys  are  his  words  of  good  cheer.  Their  deserved 
sorrows  are  his  loud  rebukes." 

In  these  words  of  Professor  Park,  a  benighted 
believer  in  three  Gods,  as  you  say  [applause],  is  God 
afar  off?  Are  there  three  Gods  here?  Does  Science 
bow  her  head.  Affection  grow  dumb.  Reason  muffle 
her  face,  as  this  priest  lifts  up  the  Bible  ? 

As  the  rainbow  shows  the  inner  structure  of  the 
light,  so  the  character  of  our  Lord  shows  the  inner 
moral  nature  of  God,  so  far  as  that  can  be  known  to 
man.  A  rainbow  is  unravelled  light,  is  it  not?  It 
was  assuredly  better  for  me  at  Wordsworth's  grave 
to  lof)k  on  the  bow  I  saw  in  the  East  than  to  gaze 
on  tlie  white  radiance  that  fell  on  the  poet's  page, 


266  TKANSCEKDENTALISM. 

when  I  wished  to  behold  the  fullest  glory  of  the 
light.  So  assuredly  it  is  better  for  us  to  gaze  on 
God's  character  as  revealed  in  Christ  than  on  God's 
character  as  revealed  in  his  works  merely,  if  we  would 
understand  God's  nature.  As  the  rainbow  is  unrav- 
elled light,  so  Christ  is  unravelled  God.  At  Words- 
worth's grave  I  might  have  heard  these  hoarse  voices 
from  the  Paines  and  the  Parkers,  and  these  softer, 
and  I  think  more  penetratingly  human  ones  from  the 
Words  worths  and  the  Parks ;  but,  in  the  name  of  the 
scientific  method,  it  would  have  been  impossible  not 
to  have  asserted  in  my  soul  that  the  God  who  was 
revealed  in  Christ  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come  ;  for 
there  is  but  one  God,  and  he  was,  and  is,  and  is  to 
come ;  and,  therefore,  when  the  bow  faded  from  the 
East,  I  did  not  think  that  it  had  ceased  to  be.  It 
had  not  been  annihilated ;  it  had  been  revealed  for  a 
while,  and,  disappearing,  it  was  received  back  into 
the  bosom  of  the  general  radiance,  and  yet  continued 
to  fall  upon  the  earth.  In  every  beam  of  white  light 
there  is  potentially  all  the  color  which  we  find  un- 
ravelled in  the  rainbow;  and  so  in  all  the  pulsations 
in  the  will  of  God  the  Father  in  his  works,  exist  the 
pulsations  of  the  heart  of  Him  who  wept  over  Jeru- 
salem, and  on  whose  bosom  once  the  beloved  disciple 
leaned  ;  for  there  is  but  one  God,  who  was,  and  is, 
and  is  to  come  ;  and  on  the  same  bosom  we  bow  our 
heads  whenever  we  bow  our  foreheads  upon  that  Sinai 
within  us  which  we  call  the  moral  law.  [Applause.] 
The  Holy  Spirit  to  me  is  Christ's  continued  life. 
But  you  say,  my  friends,  that  this  may  be  philo- 


THE  TKIXITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  267 

sophical,  but  that  it  is  not  biblical  truth.  You  affirm 
that  I  teach  m3'self  this  by  science  rather  than  by 
Scripture.  Gentlemen,  under  the  noon  of  New-Eng- 
land philosophical  and  biblical  culture,  and  in  pres- 
ence of  I  know  not  Low  many  who  dissent,  I  ask  you 
to  decide  for  yourselves  what  the  Scriptures  really 
teach  as  to  the  unity  of  the  three  subsistences  in 
that  Divine  Nature  which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come. 
Assuredly  you  will  be  ready,  in  the  name  of  literary 
science,  to  cast  at  least  one  searching  glance  upon 
this  whole  theme  from  the  point  of  view  of  exclu- 
sively biblical  statement. 

"  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away.  I  have 
yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you.  I  will  not  leave 
you  orphans.  I  am  coming  to  you.  A  little  while 
and  ye  shall  not  see  me,  and  again  a  little  while  and 
ye  shall  see  me,  because  I  go  to  the  Father."  They 
who  heard  these  sentences  said,  "  A  little  while  and 
ye  shall  not  see  me,  and  again  a  little  while  and  ye  ■ 
shall  see  me,  and  because  I  go  to  the  Father?  What 
is  this  he  saith?  We  cannot  tell  what  he  saith." 
But  there  came  a  later  day,  when  lie  who  had  made 
that  promise  breathed  upon  them,  and  said,  ''Receive 
ye  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  We  shall  not  be 
here,  all  of  us  will  be  mute,  and  most  of  us  forgotten, 
when,  in  a  better  age,  the  meaning  of  that  symbolic 
act  of  the  Author  of  Christianity  is  fathomed. 

Next  there  came  a  day  when  there  was  a  sound 
as  of  a  rushing,  mighty  wind  ;  and  this  filled  all  the 
house  where  they  who  liad  witnessed  that  act  were 
sitting.     This  is  but  the  experience  of  many  nations 


268  TKANSCENDEXTALISM. 

since  then, — the  rushing  sound  of  a  new  influence 
in  human  history,  quickening  human  consciences, 
transforming  bad  lives  into  good,  but,  until  that 
time,  never  felt  in  the  world  in  deluges,  although  it 
had  appeared  in  streams.  When  that  influence 
came,  what  was  the  interpretation  put  upon  it  by 
the  scriptural  writers  ?  Peter,  standing  up,  said, 
"  We  heard,  from  him  whom  we  know  that  God  has 
raised  from  the  dead,  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
He  hath  shed  forth  this ;  therefore,  let  Jerusalem 
know  assuredly  that  God  hath  made  him  Lord."  I 
call  that  Peter's  colossal  therefore.  It  is  the 
strongest  word  in  the  first  oration  delivered  in  the 
defence  of  Christianity.  The  Holy  Spirit  was  prom- 
ised ;  it  has  been  poured  out :  therefore,  let  those  who 
receive  it  know  that  the  power  behind  natural  law  — 
our  Lord  who  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come  —  is  now 
breathing  upon  the  centuries  as  he  breathed  upon 
us  symbolically.  He  has  shed  forth  this  :  therefore, 
let  all  men  know  assuredly  that  God  hath  made 
him  Lord.  When  they  who  were  assembled  in 
Jerusalem  at  that  time  heard  this  therefore^  they 
were  pricked  in  the  heart. 

I  affirm  that  it  is  incontrovertible,  that  the  New- 
Testament  writers,  everywhere  with  Stephen,  gaze 
steadfastly  into  heaven,  and  behold  our  Lord,  not  in 
Galilee,  not  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  but  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father.  Our  imagination  always  looks 
eastward  through  England,  as  through  the  East  win- 
dow of  a  cathedral ;  and  so  we  look  out  through  vapor 
sometimes,  through  literalness,  or  through  material- 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TEITHEISM.  269 

istic  haze,  thicker  than  vapor  occasionally ;  and  we 
have  not  strength  of  imagination  or  fervor  of  spirit 
enough  to  understand  this  literature  of  the  East,  on 
the  face  of  which  the  world  has  gazed  eighteen 
hundred  years,  and  seen  its  face  to  be  like  that  of 
Stephen,  as  the  face  of  an  angel,  and  from  the  same 
cause.  The  whole  New  Testament,  being  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  gazes,  not  as  England  and  America  do, 
into  Gethsemane,  or  upon  any  sacred  mount,  but 
into  heaven,  and  beholds  our  Lord  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Father.  I  have  bowed  down  upon  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  I  have  had  unreportable  experiences  in 
the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  and  on  the  banks  of  Jor- 
dan, and  on  the  white,  sounding  shore  of  Galilee, 
and  on  Lebanon,  and  on  Carmel,  and  on  Tabor ;  and 
God  forbid  that  I  should  underrate  at  all  a  religion 
that  reverences  sacred  places ;  but,  of  these  sacred 
places  the  New  Testament  proclaims,  "  He  is  not 
here  :  he  has  arisen  and  is  ascended."  It  nowhere 
exhibits  our  narrowness  of  outlook. 

What  if,  under  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  there  were 
but  four  windows  ?  What  if  children  were  broucrht 
up  to  look  out  yonder  upon  the  Apennines,  and  here 
upon  the  Mediterranean,  and  there  upon  the  Coli- 
seum, and  here  upon  St.  Onofrio's  oak,  under  which 
Tasso  sung?  If  children  were  brought  up  before 
these  windows,  and  did  not  pass  from  one  to  the 
other,  they  might  possibly  think  the  outlook  from 
each  one  was  Italy ;  and  so  it  is ;  but  it  is  only  a  part 
of  Italy.  We  are  poor  children,  brought  up,  some 
of  us,  before  the   window   of  science,   some   of  us 


270  TEANSCENDEXTALISM. 

before  the  window  of  art,  some  of  us  before  the 
window  of  politics,  some  of  us  before  the  window 
of  biblical  inculcation  ;  and  we  say  in  petulant  tones 
to  each  other,  each  at  his  accustomed  outlook, 
"This  is  Italy."  What  is  Italy?  Sweep  off  the 
dome,  and  answer,  "  There  is  but  one  sky."  [Ap- 
plause.]    And  that  and  all  beneath  it  is  Italy. 

As  a  fact  in  literature,  it  must  be  affirmed  that 
this  is  the  central  thought  of  the  New-Testament 
Scriptures. 

We  find,  that,  when  one  called  Saul  of  Tarsus  jour- 
neyed to  Damascus, — this  is  trite,  because  eighteen 
hundred  years  have  heard  it,  and  the  trite  is  the 
important  thing  in  history,  —  he  heard,  from  a  light 
above  the  brightness  of  this  noon,  the  words,  "  I  am 
Jesus  ;  "  and  so,  later  on,  Paul  ^vrote,  that  "  we,  be- 
holding, as  in  a  glass,  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are 
changed  with  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory 
as  by  the  Lord  the  Spirit."  "  The  Spirit  is  the 
Lord,"  was  St.  Augustine's  reading  of  Paul's  words. 

So,  in  the  last  pages  of  Revelation,  I  find  that  he 
who  was  the  beloved  disciple  was  in  the  Spirit  on 
the  Lord's  Day,  and  that  he  beheld  "  one  whose  voice 
was  like  unto  the  sound  of  many  waters,  and  whose 
countenance  was  as  the  sun  shineth  in  his  strengfth." 
"  When  I  saw  him,"  says  this  great  poet  and  prophet 
and  apostle,  "  I,  who  have  been  called  a  son  of  thun- 
der ;  I  who,  when  Cerinthus  was  in  the  same  bath 
with  me,  cried  out.  Away,  thou  heretic !  I  who  have 
been  ready  at  any  time  to  suffer  martyrdom,  —  I  fell  at 
his  feet  as  dead.     He  laid  his  right  hand  on  me,  say- 


TEDS  TRINITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  271 

ing  unto  me,  fear  not ;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last ;  I 
am  he  that  liveth,  and  was  dead ;  behokl  I  am  alive 
forevermore,  and  have  the  keys  of  life  and  of  death." 

It  is  significant  beyond  comment,  that  our  Lord 
was  often  called  "  The  Spirit,"  and  "  The  Spirit  of 
God,"  by  the  earlier  Christian  writers.  "  The  Son  is 
the  Holy  Spirit  "  is  a  common  expression,  Ignatius 
said,  "  Christ  is  the  Immaculate  Spirit  "  (^Ad  Smijm. 
init.}.  Tertullian  wrote,  "  The  Spirit  of  God  and 
the  Reason  of  God  —  Word  of  Reason,  and  Reason 
and  Spirit  of  Word  —  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  is 
both  the  one  and  the  other  "  {Be  Orat.  init.')  Cyprian 
and  Irenceus  said,  "  He  is  the  Holy  Spirit."  (See 
Delitzsch's  Sijstem  of  Biblical  Psycliology.^ 

Neander,  in  paraphrase  of  Peter's  oration,  says,  in 
summarizing  the  New-Testament  literature,  "  From 
the  extraordinary  appearances  which  have  filled  you 
with  astonishment,  you  perceive,  that,  in  his  glorified 
state,  he  is  now  operating  with  divine  energy  among 
those  who  believe  in  him.  The  heavenly  Father  has 
promised  that  the  jNIessiah  shall  fill  all  who  believe 
on  him  with  the  power  of  the  Divine  Sj)irit,  and  this 
promise  is  now  being  fulfilled.  Learn,  then,  from 
tliese  events,  in  which  you  behold  the  prophecies  of 
the  Old  Testament  fulfilled,  the  nothingness  of  all 
that  you  have  attempted  against  him,  and  know  that 
God  has  exalted  Him  whom  you  crucified  to  be  Mes- 
siah, the  ruler  of  God's  kingdom ;  and  that,  through 
Divine  Power,  he  will  overawe  all  his  enemies." 
(Neander,  Planting  of  Christianity,  Bohn's  edition, 
i.  19.     Summary  of  Peter's  speech  in  Acts  ii.) 


272  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

So  Alford  writes,  "  Christ  is  tlie  Spirit ;  is  identical 
with  the  Holy  Spirit,  not  personally  nor  essentially, 
but  (as  is  shown  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  following) 
in  this  department  of  his  divine  working :  Christ 
here  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ "  (^Remarks  on  2  Cor. 
iii.  17). 

Lange,  writing  on  the  same  passage  of  this  litera- 
ture, adds,  "  We  find  here  such  an  identification  of 
Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  the  Lord  to  whom 
the  heart  turns  is  in  no  practical  respect  different 
from  the  Holy  Spirit  received  in  conversion.  Christ 
is  virtually  the  Spirit.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  his  spirit  " 
(Lange,  2  Cor.  iii.  17,  18). 

What  if  Peter  at  Antioch  had  beheld  the  earliest 
triumphs  of  Christianity  under  persecution,  and  had 
heard  the  story  of  the  martyrdoms  which  became  the 
seed  of  the  church,  and  caused  Christians  to  be  called 
by  that  name,  and  that  shot  througli  with  hope  the 
unspeakable  despair  of  Homan  Paganism  as  by  the 
first  rays  of  the  dawn,  could  he  not,  looldng  on  Leba- 
non and  Tabor,  on  Jerusalem  and  Galilee,  have  said, 
"  He  hath  shed  forth  this  advance  of  Christianity  in 
h  Liman  affairs  ?  God  has  a  plan,  and  he  thus  reveals 
it.  God  is  giving  triumph  to  Christianity :  therefore 
let  Lebanon  and  Tabor,  let  Jerusalem  and  Galilee, 
know  assuredly  that  God  hath  made  our  Lord  the 
Lord  of  the  Roman  earth  indeed,  and  that  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  Christ's  continued  life." 

What  if,  later,  when  Christianity  had  ascended  the 
throne  of  the  Cfesars,  Peter  had  stood  on  the  Tiber, 
and  had  beheld  philosophy,  little  by  little,  permeated 


THE  TRINITY  AND   TRITHEISM.  273 

by  Christianity  ?  What  if  he  had  looked  back  on  the 
persecutions  and  martyrdoms  which  gave  purity  and 
power  to  early  Christianity,  and  which  make  her 
record,  even  to  your  infidel  Gibbon,  venerable  be- 
yond comment  ?  Could  not  Peter,  there  on  the  Tiber, 
have  said,  looking  on  the  Apennines  and  Vesuvius  and 
the  Mediterranean,  and  on  Egypt,  "  Let  Rome  and 
the  Tiber,  let  Alexandria  and  the  Nile,  know  as- 
suredly, since  our  Lord  —  who  was,  and  is,  and  is  to 
come  — hath  shed  forth  this,  that  he  is  Lord"  ? 

What  if,  later,  Peter,  standing  on  the  Bosphorus, 
when  Rome  had  lost  her  footing  on  the  Tiber,  had 
beheld  the  rushing  in  of  the  Turks  to  pulverize  the 
sunrise  foot  of  old  Rome  ;  what  if  he  had  remem- 
bered the  day,  when,  standing  on  two  feet,  Rome, 
planting  herself  on  both  the  Tiber  and  the  Bospho- 
rus, folded  her  arms,  and  looked  at  the  North  Star, 
and  proclaimed  herself  likely  to  be  as  eternal  as  that 
stellar  light ;  what  if,  remembering  all  that  had  come, 
and  all  that  had  gone,  he  had  beheld  that  Colossus 
topple  toward  the  West,  smite  itself  into  pieces  on 
the  Alps,  and  fall  in  fragments  on  the  Rhine,  on  the 
Elbe,  on  the  Oder,  some  pieces  scattered  across  the 
howling  North  Sea  to  the  Thames,  and  to  the  sites  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  these  fragments  of  old  Rome, 
built  up  in  these  places  into  universities  which  caused 
at  last  the  illumination  which  brought  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  what  if  Peter,  beholding  thus  the  Greeks  driven 
toward  the  sunset,  and  old  Rome  becoming  seed  for 
the  Reformation,  had  stood  on  the  Seine,  on  the  Elbe, 
on  the  Oder,  and  had  witnessed  the  varied  progress 


274 


TRANSCEXDEXTALISM. 


of  the  ideas  of  Him  who  affirmed  once  that  he  had 
many  things  yet  to  say,  —  might  not  Peter  there, 
side  by  side  with  Luther,  have  said  once  more,  "  He 
hath  shed  forth  this  :  therefore,  let  the  Alps  and  the 
Rhine  and  the  Seine  and  the  Elbe,  the  Thames  and 
the  German  Sea,  know  assuredly  that  this  Gulf  Cur- 
rent in  human  history,  now  two  thousand  years  old, 
is  not  an  accident  [applause]  ;  that  it  means  all  it 
expresses ;  for  what  God  does,  he  from  the  first  in- 
tends to  do?  He  who  has  thus  watched  over  the 
cause  of  Christian  truth,  and  has  been  breathing  the 
Holy  Ghost  upon  the  nations,  hath  shed  forth  this ; 
and,  therefore,  let  Berlin  and  Paris  and  London,  and 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  know  assuredly  that  God 
hath  made  him  Lord." 

What  if,  later,  when  the  tempest  of  persecution, 
rising  out  of  the  sunrise,  smote  upon  those  universi- 
ties, and  blew  the  INIayflower  across  the  sea,  Peter 
had  taken  position  in  that  vessel,  as  its  billowing, 
bellying,  bellowing  sails  fled  across  the  great  deep  in 
the  icy  breath  of  that  time  ;  and  what  if  he  had 
seen,  on  the  deck  of  that  Mayflower,  a  few  rush- 
lights taking  their  gleam  from  those  universities, 
themselves  illumined  by  the  fire  that  fell  at  Pente- 
cost? What  if  Peter,  afterward,  standing  on  Plym- 
outh Rock,  had  seen  these  rush-lights  kindling 
others,  and  a  line  of  rush-lights,  representing  the 
same  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  go  out  into  our 
wilderness,  until  they  glass  themselves  in  the  Con- 
necticut and  in  the  Hudson,  and  in  the  eyes  of  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  murmuring  pines  and  hemlocks, 


THE  TRINITY   AND   TRITHEISM.  275 

and  in  the  eternal  roar  of  Niagara,  and  in  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  in  the  Mississippi,  and  in  the  springs  of 
the  Sierras,  and  at  last  in  the  soft,  hissing  foam  of 
the  Pacific  seas;  what  if,  beholding  these  rush-lights 
thus  carried  across  a  continent  by.  divine  guidance, 
Peter  had  stood  here,  —  would  not  the  force  of  his 
word  therefore  have  had  new  emphasis  as  he  should 
have  said,  "  He  hath  shed  forth  this  :  therefore,  let 
Boston,  let  New  York,  let  Chicago,  let  San  Francisco, 
let  the  surf  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  let  the  Avaterfalls 
of  the  Yosemite,  know  assuredly  that  God  hath  made 
him.Lord"? 

But  what  if,  when  a  tempest  sprung  out  of  the 
South,  and  these  rush-lights  were,  I  will  not  say  ex- 
tinguished, but  all  bent  to  the  earth,  and  painfully 
tried,  some  "of  them  blown  out,  he  had  beheld  the 
lights,  little  by  little,  after  the  tempest  had  gone 
down,  begin  to  be  carried  southward,  and  at  last 
glass  themselves  in  the  steaming  bayous  and  the  Gulf? 
what  if,  although  some  had  been  extmguished  for- 
ever, he  had  seen  them  shining  on  the  breaking  of 
the  fetters  of  three  million  slaves?  what  if  the 
churches,  when  the  tempest  ceases,  grow  brighter  in 
their  assertion  of  the  value  of  their  light,  and  are 
filling  the  land  with  its  influence,  and,  if  God  con- 
tinues to  illumine  them,  will  make  the  rush-lights  glass 
themselves  yet  in  all  the  streams,  in  all  the  springs, 
and  in  all  the  sprays  on  all  the  shores  of  all  the  land, 
—  could  not  he,  looking  on  such  results  in  a  territory 
greater  than  Rome  ever  ruled  over,  have  said,  "  He 
hath  shed  forth  this  :  therefore,  let  America  know  as- 
suredly that  God  hath  made  him  Lord  "  ? 


276  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

But  what  if,  lastly,  Peter  had  beheld  a  rush-light 
taken  across  the  Pacific  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and 
one  to  Japan,  and  one  to  China,  and  one  to  India, 
and  had  seen  the  soft  rolling  globe  enswathed  in  all 
its  zones  by  rush-lights  bearing  the  very  flames  which 
fell  at  Pentecost,  and  beaten  on,  indeed,  by  persecu- 
tion here  and  there,  but  not  likely  to  be  beaten  on 
ever  again  as  fiercely  as  they  have  been  already ;  not 
likely  to  be  blown  out  everywhere,  even  if  they  are 
in  some  places,  and  thus  ensphering  the  globe  so  that 
it  is  not  probable  at  all,  under  the  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  that  they  will  be  put  out  [applause] ,  — 
could  not  Peter,  then,  looking  on  what  God  has  done, 
and  what  he  therefore  intended  to  do  ;  looking  on  the 
incontrovertible  fact,  that  the  islands  of  the  sea  and 
the  continents  have  been  coming  to  prefer  Christian 
thought,  and  seem  likely  to  remain  under  its  influ- 
ence, —  could  he  not,  while  standing  on  scientific  and 
biblical  ground  at  once,  have  affirmed  in  the  name 
both  of  science  and  of  Scripture  the  transfiguring 
truth,  "  He  hath  shed  forth  this  :  therefore,  let  Asia 
on  the  Himalaya  tops,  let  Europe  in  the  Parthenon 
and  Coliseum,  let  London's  mystic  roar,  let  the  New 
World  in  her  youthful  vigor,  let  all  the  islands  of 
the  sea,  know  assuredly  that  the  fittest  has  survived, 
and  that  the  fittest  will  survive ;  and  that  God  hath 
made  him  Lord  who  is  fittest  to  be  so  "  ?  All  the 
seas,  in  all  their  waves,  on  all  their  shores,  would  an- 
swer to  such  an  assertion,  Hallelujah !  So  be  it.  The 
influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  Christ's  continaed 
life.     [Applause.] 


XL 


FEAGMENTARINESS  OF   OUTLOOK  UPON   THE  DI- 
VINE NATURE. 

THE    SIXTY-NINTH    LECTURE     IN     THE    BOSTON    MONDAY    LEC- 
TUKESHIP,    DELIVERED   IN   TREMONT   TEMPLE   MARCH   12. 


"  Vox  nostra  quae  sit  accipe. 
Est  Christus  et  Pater  Deus: 
Servi  hujus  ac  testes  sumus; 
Extorque  si  i)otes  fidem. 

Tormenta,  career,  ungulae 
Stridensque  flammis  lamina 
Atque  ipsa  poenarum  ultima; 
Mors  Christianis  Indus  est." 

Prud.  Peristeph.  Hymn,  5.  57. 


"  Dens  antem  et  Pater  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi,  et  ipse  Sempi- 
ternns  Pontifex,  Dei  Filius  Jesus  Christus,  sedificet  vos  in  fide  et 
veritate  et  in  omni  mansuetudine,  .  .  .  et  det  vobis  sortem  et  partem 
inter  sanctos  suos."  —  Polycarp,  ad  Phil.,  12. 


XI. 


FRAGMENTARINESS  OF  OUTLOOK  UPON 
THE  DIVINE  NATURE. 

PRELUDE   ON   CURKENT   EVENTS. 

In  1640  the  whole  population  of  New  England 
was  English,  and  consisted  of  only  about  four  thou- 
sand families,  or  twenty  thousand  persons.  Bancroft 
points  out,  that,  after  the  first  fifteen  years  following 
the  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock,  there  was  no  consid- 
erable addition  from  England.  Your  Palfrey  shows, 
that,  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  the  four  thou- 
sand families  multiplied  in  remarkable  seclusion  from 
other  communities,  and  that  it  is  only  within  the  last 
fifty  years  that  the  foreigners  have  come.  New  Eng- 
land is  clianging  the  character  of  her  population  to 
such  an  extent,  that  we  must  now  look  for  the  de- 
scendants of  those  who  crossed  in  the  Mayflower, 
not  so  much  on  the  Atlantic  slope  as  in  the  Missis- 
sippi valley  and  on  the  Pacific  coast.  It  is  not  true 
that  New  England  is  becoming  New  Ireland ;  but  it 

279 


280  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

is  hardly  epigrammatic   to   say  that  manufacturing 
New  England  is  New  Ireland  already. 

Perhaps  we  shall  do  well  to  remember,  that,  while 
the  population  of  the  manufacturing  centres  of  New 
England  is  increasing  with  extraordinary  rapidity, 
that  of  the  agricultural  and  commercial  districts  is 
fluctuating,  and,  in  many  cases,  on  the  decrease.  The 
distinctions  between  the  rich  and  poor  are  becoming 
wider  in  the  manufacturing  districts.  This  is  partly 
the  unavoidable  result  of  the  natural  growth  of  the 
power  of  capital.  It  is,  in  part,  the  consequence  of 
the  massing  of  men  in  cities  as  distinct  from  small 
towns.  It  is,  to  some  extent,  the  effect  of  the  organi- 
zation of  manufacturing  industry  in  great  corpora- 
tions on  the  one  side,  and  an  operative  population  on 
the  other.  It  is,  in  large  measure,  the  result  of  the 
fact,  that,  in  the  manufacturing  districts  of  New  Eng- 
land, a  vastly  greater  proportion  of  the  population  is 
now  of  foreign  descent  than  fifty  years  ago.  The 
two  most  typical  things  in  the  territory  east  of  the 
Hudson  are  the  college  bell  and  the  factory  chimney. 
The  first  New  England  was  a  church;  the  second 
New  England  is  to  be  a  factory. 

What  is  the  worth  of  the  church  to  the  working- 
man? 

Look  at  the  seven  cities  on  the  Merrimack  River. 
I  often  hang  in  imagination  over  that  stream  as  the 
best  emblem  of  the  industrial  life  of  Eastern  New 
England.  Child  of  the  White  Mountains  and  the 
Pemigewasset,  the  Merrimack  rushes  under  the  spin- 
dles of  seven  cities  to  the  sea,  —  Concord,  Manches- 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE   DIVINE   NATURE.         281 

ter,  Nashua,  Lowell,  Lawrence,  Haverhill,  Newbury- 
port,  —  doing  more  work  than  any  other  river  of  its 
size  in  the  world,  and  typical  more  and  more  of  the 
future  into  which  our  Atlantic  New-England  slope  is 
drifting.  These  seven  cities  have  in  the  aggregate, 
in  the  last  twenty  years,  more  than  doubled  in  wealth 
and  population.  Romish  cathedral  churches  are  ris- 
ing in  our  manufacturing  centres,  and  are  not  likely 
to  be  empty.  But,  under  the  voluntary  system,  many 
of  our  Protestant  churches  are  looked  upon  by  a 
portion  of  the  operatives  as  close  corporations.  When 
a  church  is  not  mossy,  it  is  aristocratic,  our  working- 
men  too  often  think ;  and  so  our  floating,  unchurched 
populations  are  coming  to  be  very  large  in  our  factory 
centres. 

If  I  were  a  working-man,  I  presume  I  should  want 
fair  play  between  employers  and  employed.  I  think 
I  should  care  for  my  children,  and  desire  to  have  a 
better  place  for  them  than  Old  England  gives  the 
very  youngest  at  the  factory-wheel.  It  seems  almost 
incredible,  that  some  of  the  acutest  members  of  our 
Protestant  foctory-population  are  falling  into  neglect 
of  the  church,  when  it  is  certain  that  only  by  the 
diffusion  of  conscientiousness  among  the  laboring- 
classes  can  co-operation  ever  succeed ;  and  that  con- 
scientiousness will  not  be  diffused  without  the  use  of 
means  which  the  Church  herself  employs  none  too 
thoroughly,  but  which  no  other  organization  pretends 
to  employ  at  all  as  a  permanent  system  for  the  cul- 
ture of  society.  Can  co-operation  ever  succeed,  un- 
less there  are  large  numbers  of  honest  men  in  society  ? 


282  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

How  are  these  to  be  made  ?  In  commerce  you  want 
a  revival  of  business.  You  want,  therefore,  a  revival 
of  undefiled  religion.  How  are  you  to  have  that,  if 
3^ou  are  to  neglect,  I  will  not  say  this  or  that  branch 
of  the  church,  but  the  church  as  a  whole  ?  If  you 
are  to  shut  the  doors  of  God's  house  on  the  Sabbath, 
how  are  you  to  be  sure  that  diffusion  of  conscien- 
tiousness will  come  ?  Why  do  not  working-men  see 
the  great  impropriety  of  their  neglecting  the  church, 
and  that  the  church  is  made  up  of  men,  many  of 
whom  have  risen  from  the  bench  of  the  shoemaker, 
or  from  the  wheel  of  the  operative  ?  Our  New-Eng- 
land society  is  not  divided  into  hereditary  and  fixed 
classes.  We  must  look  on  our  churches  as  the  work 
of  the  people ;  and  it  is  not  American  for  a  portion 
of  our  New-England  population  to  regard  our 
churches  as  aristocratic  machines.  Perhaps  some  of 
them  are  ;  I  am  not  defending  the  whole  list  of  them  ; 
but  most  of  them,  I  think  ninety  out  of  a  hundred, 
are  eager  to  be  of  service  in  the  diffusion  of  consci- 
entiousness, and  all  culture  and  comfort,  among  the 
factory  population,  and  in  the  beating  down  of  all 
the  walls  of  division  between  the  workmen  and  their 
employers.     [Applause.] 

You  want  arbitration  committees ;  you  want  fair 
consultation  between  capital  and  labor  ?  Bring  your 
whole  population  together  once  a  week  in  the  church, 
where  all  class-walls  are,  or  ought  to  be,  broken 
down.  [Applause.]  I  am  not  speaking  of  all  the 
churches ;  for  God  has  not  granted  to  all  men  the 
capacity  to  burst  asunder  the  silken  bonds  of  luxury : 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE   DIVIXE   NATURE.         283 

he  has  to  some  men,  and  to  some  who  are  very- 
weal  thy.  But  the  most  of  our  churches  m  New 
England  were  built  by  the  people,  and  come  from 
the  hearts  of  the  average  population ;  and  it  is  abso- 
lutely suicidal  for  the  working-man  to  let  his  chil- 
dren grow  up  without  the  religious  culture  of  the 
church.     [Applause.] 

Have  you  ever  heard  that  the  Sabbath  schools 
have  been  greatly  improved  in  the  last  fifty  years  ? 
There  is  a  liberal  denomination  which  lately  has  been 
issuing  Sabbath-school  volumes  with  questions  about 
the  relations  between  religion  and  science.  I  thank 
God  for  that  step  in  advance.  Let  it  be  understood 
that  the  Sabbath  school  is  now  a  better  thing  than  it 
used  to  be,  and  that  you  cannot  let  your  children 
stay  out  of  it  without  putting  them  behind  other 
children.  Do  you  wish  to  have  that  spirit  of  good 
sense  pervade  the  community  which  you  would  like 
to  find  in  the  arbitration  board?  You  will  never 
have  it,  unless  you  take  possession  of  the  church  and 
of  the  ministry.  The  latter  are  rather  a  numerous 
and  well-educated  class,  and  they  have  much  oppor- 
tunity to  study  public  questions :  why  cannot  you 
win  them  to  y^our  side  ?  [Applause.]  There  is  a 
strategic  act  for  workingmen  to  do  on  the  JNIerri- 
mack !     [Applause.] 

When  you  and  I  are  no  longer  in  the  world,  the 
supreme  question  in  New-England  civilization  will 
be  how  to  make  Plymouth  Rock  the  corner-stone 
of  a  factory.  [Applause.]  Do  not  say  that  I  am 
uttering  any  thing  irreverent,  when  I  speak  of  that 


284  TRAJSrSCENDENTALISM. 

sacred  spot  on  the  shore  yonder  as  fit  to  be  the 
begmning  of  the  newest  New  England,  as  it  was  of 
the  earliest.  Plymouth  Rock  was  the  corner-stone 
of  the  first  New  England  :  shall  it  be  the  corner- 
stone of  the  second  ?  Where  are  the  builders  that 
shall  place  that  jagged  and  fundamental  rock  in  line 
with  the  other  stones  of  the  wall  ?  Shall  we  hew 
the  factory  to  make  it  fit  Plymouth  Rock,  or  Plj^m- 
outh  Rock  to  fit  the  factor}^  ?  God  send  us  no 
future  into  which  Plymouth  Rock  cannot  be  built 
unhewn !  [Applause.]  You  think  it  is  a  very 
unpoetic,  prosaic  fact,  that  New  England  is  to  be  a 
factory.  Goethe,  our  modern  philosopher  and  poet, 
used  to  say  the  sound  of  spindles  in  Manchester  was 
the  most  poetic  sound  of  this  century.  Not  every 
man  has  Goethe's  ears.  He  foresaw  the  time  when 
a  greater  proportion  than  now  of  the  population 
of  the  world  will  be  in  cities,  and  when  the  most 
numerous  inhabitants  in  cities  will  be  of  the  opera- 
tive class.  Thomas  Carlyle  says  somewhere,  "  Have 
you  ever  listened  to  the  awakening  of  Manchester  in 
Old  England  at  half-past  five  by  the  clock?  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  looms  and  spindles  all 
set  moving  there,  like  the  broom  of  an  Atlantic  tide. 
It  is,  if  you  think  of  it,  sublime  as  Niagara,  or  more 
so."  Sometimes  I  have  repeated  to  myself  these 
words  when  awaking  in  the  gray  morning  on  Beacon 
Hill,  as  I  have  listened  to  the  factory  bells,  and 
allowed  imagination  to  move  up  the  Merrimack,  past 
Newburyport,  Haverhill,  and  Lawrence  and  Lowell, 
and  Manchester  and  Concord,  and  to  see  the  crowds  of 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE   DIVINE   NATURE.         285 

the  operative  class  coining  out  in  streams  in  the  early 
dawn.  It  is  sublime,  and  it  is  to  be  more  and  more 
sublime  as  the  years  pass  ?  But  only  the  church,  cap- 
tured by  the  working-men,  and  able  to  capture  the 
•working-men  in  return,  can  prevent  in  our  free  so- 
ciety, when  once  New  England  is  crowded  with  manu- 
facturing centres,  those  collisions  between  capital  and 
labor  which  have  arisen  in  the  Old  World.  [Ap- 
plause.] You  never  can  bridge  the  chasm  between 
capital  and  labor  here  by  a  kid  glove.  [Applause.] 
You  never  can  bridge  it  with  the  bayonet.  [Ap- 
plause.] In  the  Old  World  it  has  been  bridged  by 
the  bayonet  on  the  continent  and  by  the  kid  glove 
in  England ;  but  in  New  England  the  only  bridge 
that  will  cross  that  chasm  is  popular,  scientific, 
aggressive,  deadly  Christianity,  laid  on  the  buttresses 
of  the  Sabbaths  and  the  common  schools.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

The  River  Rhine  is  a  majestic  stream,  until,  in  the 
Netherlands  of  the  North  Sea  shore,  it  divides  into 
shallows  and  swamps  and  steaming  oozes.  Man's 
adoration  of  God  is  a  majestic  stream,  until,  in  the 
Netherlands  of  religious  experience,  it  divides  among 
three  Gods,  or  among  many  Gods,  and  so  becomes  a 
collection  of  shallows  and  swamps  and  steaming 
oozes.  Out  of  these  North  Sea  hollow  lands,  wher- 
ever they  have  existed  in  any  age  of  the  moral 
experience  of  the  race,  there  has  invariably  arisen  a 
vapor  obscuring  the  wide,  undivided  azure,  and  even 


286  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

the  near  landscapes  of  natural  truth.  Give  me  the 
Christian  and  the  scientific  surety  of  the  unity  of 
the  Divine  Nature,  and  let  my  whole  soul  flow 
toward  one  God  ;  let  me  not  worship  three  separate 
wills,  three  separate  consciences,  three  separate  sets 
of  affections,  but  one  Will,  one  Conscience,  one  Heart, 
which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come  ;  and  so  long  as 
the  Alps  of  thought  feed  me  with  their  cool,  im- 
petuous, crystalline  streams,  I  shall  be  like  the 
Rhine,  deep  enough  in  the  current  of  my  adoring 
affections  to  drive  out  the  drift-wood  and  bowlders 
in  the  stream,  and  not  permit  them  to  accumulate, 
and  form  islands  to  divide  the  river  into  shallows 
and  oozes.  Let  me  move  toward  God,  one  in  nature 
outside  of  the  soul,  one  in  Christ  revealed  in  history, 
one  as  tangible  to  the  gonscience  in  the  intuitions. 
Let  me  feel  that  all  these  subsistences  are  one  Sub- 
stance ;  and  it  may  be  that  the  Rhine  of  the  human 
affections,  turned  thus  toward  God  as  one  Will,  one 
Heart,  and  one  Conscience,  will  be  majestic  enough 
to  float  fleets  both  for  peace  and  for  war  [applause]  ; 
and  will  go  out  into  the  ocean  at  last,  not  as  a  set 
of  befogged  shallows  and  oozes,  but  as  the  Amazon 
goes  out,  an  undivided  river  into  an  undivided  ocean, 
a  thousand  flashing  leagues  caught  up  into  infinite 
times  ten  thousand  flashing  leagues,  the  interspher- 
ing  of  wave  with  wave  in  every  case,  the  interspers- 
ing of  a  portion  of  the  finite  personality  with  the 
Lifinite  Personality^  one,  invisible,  omnipotent,  omni- 
present, eternal,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever,  holy,  holy,  holy,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost. 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE  DIVINE   NATUEE.         287 

For  one,  I  had  rather,  my  friends,  go  back  to  the 
Bosphorus,  Avhere  I  stood  a  few  months  ago,  and 
worship  with  tliat  emperor  who  Lately  slit  his  veins, 
and  went  hence  by  suicide,  than  to  be  in  name  only 
an  orthodox  believer,  or  in  theory  to  hold  that  there 
is  but  one  God,  but  in  imagination  to  worship  three 
Gods.  I  am  orthodox,  I  hope  ;  but  my  first  concern, 
is  to  be  straiglitforward.  I  purpose  to  be  straight- 
forward, even  if  I  must  be  orthodox.  [Applause.] 
Revere  the  orthodoxy  of  straightforwardness  ;  and 
when  that  justifies  j-ou  in  doing  so,  but  only  then, 
revere  the  straightforwardness  of  orthodoxy.  [Ap- 
plause.] ^Mahometan  Paganism  yonder  contains  one 
great  truth,  —  the  Divine  Unity  ;  and  I  never  touch 
this  majestic  theme  of  the  Divine  Triunity  without 
remembering  what  that  single  truth,  as  I  heard  it 
uttered  on  the  Bosphorus,  did  for  me  when  I  knelt 
there  once  in  a  mosque  with  the  emperor  and  with 
the  peasants,  with  the  highest  officers  of  state  and 
with  the  artisans,  and  saw  them  all  bow  down,  and 
bring  their  foreheads  to  the  mats  of  the  temple,  and 
heard  them  call  out,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
as  they  prostrated  themselves,  "  Allah  el  akbar  !  " 
"  God  is  one,  and  God  is  great."  So,  prostrating 
themselves,  they  three  times  called  out,  "  Allah  el 
akbar  !  "  and  then  remained  silent,  until  I  felt  that 
this  one  truth  had  in  it  a  transfiguration.  I  affirm 
that  I  had  rather  go  back  to  that  shore  of  the  azure 
water  which  connects  the  Black  Sea  with  the  Med- 
iterranean, and,  omitting  the  leprosy  of  j\Ialiome- 
tanism,  take  for  my  religion  pure  Theism,  than  to 


288  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

hold  that  there  are  three  Gods  with  three  wills,  three 
sets  of  affections,  three  intellects,  three  conscienceSj 
and  thus  to  deny  the  assurances  of  both  scriptural 
and  scientific  truth,  and  make  of  myself  the  begin- 
ning of  a  polytheist,  although  calling  myself  ortho- 
dox. 

At  what  should  we  arrive,  however,  if  we  should 
adopt  the  bare  idea  of  the  Divine  Unity  without 
taking  also  that  of  the  Triunity  ?  Should  we  thus 
be  faithful  to  the  scientific  method?  Should  we 
thus  be  looking  at  all  the  facts  ?  Should  we  obtain 
by  this  method  the  richest  conception  of  God,  or 
should  we  see  from  such  a  point  of  view  only  a 
fragment  of  that  portion  of  his  nature  which  man 
may  apprehend  ? 

Theodore  Parker  taught  God's  Immanence  in  mind 
and  matter,  and  it  is  amazing  that  he  thought  this 
truth  a  new  one.  If  you  are  of  my  opinion,  you  will 
reverence  that  one  portion  of  his  far  from  original 
teaching ;  for  it  is  at  once  a  scientific  and  a  Chris- 
tian certainty,  that,  wherever  God  acts,  there  he  is. 
The  Bridgewater  Treatises  affirm  this  truth  with 
more  emphasis  than  Parker  ever  laid  upon  it.  The 
one  chord  which  he  struck  in  theology  to  which  all 
hearts  vibrate  was  the  certainty  of  the  Divine  Imma- 
nence in  matter  and  mind ;  and  this  one  certainty 
was  the  secret  of  any  power  he  had  in  distinctively 
religious  endeavor.  Men,  he  said,  have  a  conscience  ; 
and  in  that  conscience  the  moral  law  is  revealed; 
and  that  moral  law  reveals  a  Holy  Person. 

Your    Helmholtz    and    Wundt,    and    Beale    and 


OUTLOOK   UrOX    THE   DIYIXE    NATURE.         289 

Carpenter,  and  Herschel  and  Faraday,  and  Darwin 
and  Agassiz,  as  well  as  your  Lotze  and  Kant  and 
Leibnitz,  and  your  St.  Chrysostom,  and  Jeremy 
Taylor,  and  Archbishop  Butler,  all  unite  with  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  and  David  and  Isaiah,  in  asserting 
the  Divine  Personal  Immanence  in  matter  and  mind. 
There  is  no  cloud  at  this  moment  shot  through  by 
the  noon  so  completely  saturated  by  light  as  all 
mind  and  matter  are  by  the  Divine  Immanence ;  that 
is  to  say,-  by  this  invisible,  incomprehensible  Person- 
ality which  the  moral  law  reveals. 

BuU  granting  the  fact  of  the  Divine  'Personal  im- 
manence  in  matter  and  mind,  to  what  results  must  a 
rigid  use  of  the  scientific  method  bring  us  on  the  theme 
of  the  Triunity  of  the  Divine  Nature  ?  I  know  of  no 
question  on  this  topic  fairer  or  more  fruitful  than 
this. 

1.  Since  a  Personal  God  is  immanent  in  all  mat- 
ter and  mind,  it  follows,  that,  in  all  nature  outside 
the  soul,  we  look  into  God's  face. 

2.  For  the  same  reason,  it  Is  incontrovertible,  that 
in  the  soul  we  call  Christ,  and  in  his  influence  in 
history,  we  look  into  God's  face. 

3.  For  the  same  reason,  it  is  certain,  that,  in  the 
intuitions  of  conscience,  we  look  into  God's  face. 

4.  These  three  spheres  of  his  self-manifestation  em- 
brace all  of  God  that  can  be  known  to  man. 

5.  Irv.  each  of  these  spheres  of  the  self  manifestation 
of  the  Divine  Nature,  something  is  shoivn  which  is  not 
shoivn  with  equal  clearness  in  either  of  the  other 
spheres.  In  each  of  them,  the  Ineffalle  Immanen 
Person  says  something  new. 


'd 


290  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

6.  In  external  nature  he  appears  chiefly  as  Creator; 
in  Christ  chiefly  as  Redeemer ;  in  conscience  chiefly 
as  Sanctifier. 

7.  These  are  all  facts  scientifically  known. 

8.  A  scientific  scheme  of  religious  thought  must  look 
at  all  the  facts. 

9.  When  all  the  facts  known  to  man  are  tahen  into 
view,  -a  Trinity  of  Divine  3Ianifestations  is,  therefore, 
scientifically  demonstrable. 

1 0.  But,  according  to  the  admitted  proposition  that 
a  Personal  God  is  immanent  in  all  matter  and  mind, 
he  reveals  himself  in  each  of  these  manfestations  as  a 
Person,  and  yet  as  one. 

11.  ^  Personal  Triunity,  of  which  Creator,  Re- 
deemer, and  Sanctifier  are  hut  other  names,  is  therefore 
scientifically  Icnoivn  to  exist. 

12.  This  is  the  Trinity  which  Christianity  calls 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  all  parts  of 
whose  undivided  glory  it  inculcates  adoration  in  the 
name  of  what  God  is,  and  of  what  he  has  done,  and 
of  what  man  needs, 

All  these  propositions  you  will  grant  me,  except  the 
second;  hut  you  cannot  deny  that,  without  throwing 
away  your  oivn  admission  that  a  Personal  God  is  im- 
manent in  all  matter  and  mind. 

Even  Rousseau  could  say  that  Socrates  died  like 
a  man,  but  the  Founder  of  Christianity  like  a  God. 
Carlyle  afiirms  that  Voltaire's  attacks  on  Christi- 
anity are  a  battering-ram,  swinging  in  the  wrong 
direction.  ■  Who  doubts,  that,  at  the  head  of  the 
effect  we  call  Christianity,  there  was  an  adequate' 


OUTLOOK   UPON  -THE   DrVIN-E  NATURE.         291 

Cause,  or  a  Person?  and  who  can  deny,  that,  in  the 
soul  of  that  Person,  God  spake  to  man  as  never 
before  or  since  ?  Scholarship  has  outgrown  the  old 
forms  of  historical  doubt ;  and  historical  science 
now  admits,  that,  whether  we  say  Christ  possessed 
proper  Deity  or  not,  he  assuredly  has  been  the  chief 
religious  teacher  of  the  race.  But  that  fact  means 
more  than  much,  if  looked  at  on  all  sides.  Keep  in 
mind  here  that  glimpse  of  the  world  history  on 
which  we  were  gazing  when  last  w^e  parted  from  this 
Temple. 

Xapoleou  at  St.  Helena  said  that  something  mys- 
terious exists  in  universal  history  in  its  relation  to 
Christianity.  "  Can  you  tell  me  who  Jesus  Christ 
was  ?  "  said  this  Italian,  greater  than  Csesar,  and  as 
free  from  partisan  religious  prejudices.  The  question 
was  declined  by  Bertrand ;  and  Napoleon  proceeded, 
"  Well,  then,  I  will  tell  you."  I  am  reading  now 
from  a  passage  authorized  by  three  of  Napoleon's 
biographers,  and  freely  accepted  by  European  schol- 
ars as  an  authoritative  statement  of  his  conversation 
in  exile.  (See  Liddon's  Bampton  Lectures,  Eng. 
ed.,  p.  148,  for  a  full  list  of  authorities  for  this  ex- 
tract.) "  Alexander,  Cajsar,  Charlemagne,  and  I  my- 
self have  founded  great  empires  ;  but  uj)on  what  did 
these  creations  of  our  genius  depend  ?  Upon  force. 
Jesus  alone  founded  his  empire  upon  love  ;  and  to 
this  very  day  millions  would  die  for  him.  ...  I 
think  I  understand  something  of  human  nature  ;  and 
I  tell  you  all  these  were  men,  and  I  am  a  man.  No 
other  is  like  him :    Jesus  Christ  was  more  than  a 


292  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

man.  I  have  inspired  multitudes  with  such  an  enthu- 
siastic devotion,  tliat  they  would  have  died  for  me  : 
but,  to  do  this,  it  was  necessary  that  I  should  be  visi- 
lly  present  with  the  electric  influence  of  my  looks, 
of  my  words,  of  my  voice.  When  I  saw  men,  and 
spoke  with  them,  I  lighted  up  the  flame  of  self-devo- 
tion in  their  hearts.  .  .  .  Christ  alone  has  succeeded 
in  so  raising  the  mind  of  man  toward  the  Unseen, 
that  it  becomes  insensible  to  the  barriers  of  time  and 
space.  Across  a  chasm  of  eighteen  hundred  years 
Jesus  Christ  makes  a  demand  which  is  beyond  all 
others  difficult  to  satisfy.  He  asks  for  that  which  a 
philosopher  may  often  seek  in  vain  at  the  hands  of 
his  friends,  or  a  father  of  his  children,  or  a  bride  of 
her  spouse,  or  a  man  of  his  brother.  He  asks  for  the 
human  heart ;  he  will  have  it  entirely  to  liimself ;  he 
demands  it  unconditionall}'',  and  forthwith  his  de- 
mand is  granted.  Wonderful !  In  defiance  of  time 
and  space,  the  soul  of  man,  with  all  its  powers  and 
faculties,  becomes  an  annexation  to  the  empire  of 
Christ.  All  wJio  sincerely/  believe  in  him  experieyice 
that  remarkable  supernatural  love  towards  him.  This 
phenomenon  is  unaccountable  ;  it  is  altogether  beyond 
the  scope  of  man's  creative  jyowers.  Time,  the  great 
destroyer,  is  powerless  to  extinguish  this  sacred  flame  : 
time  can  neither  exhaust  its  strength,  nor  put  a  limit  to 
its  range.  This  is  what  strikes  me  most :  I  have  often 
thought  of  it.  This  it  is  which  proves  to  me  quite  con- 
vincingly the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.''''  [Applause.] 
It  is  beyond  all  controversy,  that  precisely  this 
central    thought    of    Christianity   which   convinced 


OUTLOOK  UPON   THE  DIVINE   NATURE.  293 

Napoleon  was  what  most  struck  tho  ancient  Roman 
philosophers.  Christ's  continued  life  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  was  that  heard  of  in  the  first  centuries  ? 
Why,  I  open  an  ancient  book,  written  in  opposition  to 
Christianity,  and  cited  by  Arnobius,  and  I  read,  "  Our 
gods  are  not  displeased  with  you  Christians  for  Avor- 
shipping  the  Almighty  God ;  but  you  maintain  the 
Deity  of  one  who  was  put  to  death  on  the  cross ;  you 
believe  him  to  be  yet  alive  (^et  superesse  adhuc  creditis^^ 
and  you  adore  him  with  daily  supplications  "  (Ae- 
NOBius,  adv.  Gentes,  i.  36).  Pliny's  letter  to  Trajan 
implies  all  this,  but  is  so  celebrated,  that  I  need  not 
recite  its  majestic  facts  here. 

Men  showed  me  at  Rome,  in  the  Kircherian  Muse- 
um, a  square  foot  of  the  plaster  of  a  wall  of  a  pal- 
ace, not  many  years  ago  uncovered  on  the  Palatine 
Hill.  On  the  poor  clay  was  traced  a  cross  bearing  a 
human  fifrure  with  a  brute's  head.  The  ficrure  was 
nailed  to  the  cross  ;  and  before  it  a  soldier  was  repre- 
sented kneeling,  and  extending  his  hands,  in  the 
Greek  posture  of  devotion.  Underneath  all  was 
scratched  in  rude  lettering  in  Greek,  "  Alexamenos 
adores  his  Gody  That  representation  of  the  central 
thought  of  Christianity  was  made  in  a  jeering  mo- 
ment by  some  rude  soldier  in  the  days  of  Caracalla  ; 
but  it  blazes  there  now  in  Rome,  the  most  majestic 
monument  of  its  age  in  the  world.  (See  Liddon, 
Bampto7i  Lectures.,  p.  39G.) 

You  believe  your  Lord  is  yet  alive?  You  adore 
him?  All  the  history  of  the  early  persecutions  of 
Christianity   accords  with  tire   import  of    tliis  Kir- 


294  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

cherian  sjrmbol.  Listen  to  the  last  words  of  the  mar- 
tyrs through  all  the  first  five  centuries  of  Christian- 
ity. They  are  these,  and  such  as  these :  "  O  Lord 
God  of  heaven  and  earth,  Jesu  Christ,  to  thee  do  I 
bend  my  neck  by  way  of  sacrifice ;  O  Thou  who 
abidest  forever."  These  were  the  words  of  Felix,  an 
African  bishop,  condemned  to  death  at  Venusium. 
(See  for  a  multitude  of  similar  instances  Ruinakt's 
celebrated  work.  Acta  3Iartyrum  Sincera^  edition  Ve- 
ronae.)  "  O  Lord  Jesu  Christ,  Thou  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth,  give  peace  unto  thy  Church."  So  spoke 
Theodotus  of  Ancyra  in  the  extremity  of  torture. 
{Ihid.,  p.  303.) 

Poor  Blandina,  there  at  Lyons  in  the  year  177, 
you  remember  how  they  roasted  her,  frail  girl,  on 
the  reel-hot  iron  chair  ;  put  her  in  a  net  and  exposed 
her  to  the  horns  of  oxen;  whirled  her  in  instru- 
ments of  torture  until  her  senses  were  lost,  and 
then  plunged  her  into  flames ;  and  day  after  day  did 
that,  while  she  apparently  experienced  little  pain, 
calling  out  at  every  interval  when  her  strength  came 
back,  "  I  am  a  Christian  :  there  is  no  evil  done  among 
us."  And  so  she  passed  hence,  but  speaks  to  us  as 
one  yet  living.  (See  Eusebiijs,  v.  1-3,  for  a  con- 
temporary account  of  Blandina  in  a  letter  written 
from  the  churches  of  Lyons  and  Vienne  to  those 
of  Asia  Minor.)  She  "  hastened  to  Christ,"  says  an 
.account  written  by  eye-witnesses  of  her  sufferings ; 
and  they  send  "  to  those  having  the  same  faith  and 
hope,"  "  Peace,  and  grace,  and  glory  from  God  the 
Father,  and   Christ  Jesus,  our   Lord."     Multitudes 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE   DIVIXE   NATURE.         295 

and  multitudes,  a  great  army  of  martyrs,  passed 
out  of  the  world,  believing  tliat  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  was  Christ's  continued  life ;  and,  if 
there  is  any  thing  mysterious  in  history,  Napoleon 
had  his  ej'e  upon  it  when  he  asked  what  it  is  that 
makes  the  martyrs  in  every  age  painless  when  on 
the  bosom  of  their  spouse. 

There  was  a  God  in  Christ,  whether  you  regard 
him  as  divine  or  not ;  and  that  was  one  revelation  of 
God  which  was  made,  and  is  now  making,  in  this  in- 
controvertible fact  of  his  earthly  influence,  which  Na- 
poleon thought  utterly  inexplicable  on  merely  human 
lines  of  cause  and  effect.  But  in  conscience  there  is 
a  God.  In  the  moral  intuitions  of  the  soul  we  look 
into  God's  face.  Assuredly,  even  if  you  and  I  were 
not  to  have,  a  better  age  will  have,  a  religious  science 
that  will  take  into  view  all  these  facts.  There  is  a 
God  in  external  nature  ;  there  is  a  God  in  Christ ; 
there  is  a  God  in  the  intuitions  of  the  human  spirit : 
and  if  I  could  not  have  any  other  Trinity  than  that, 
although  I  do  not  believe  that  to  be  the  best,  I  would 
have  that,  for  I  want  all  the  truth  I  can  reach.  I, 
therefore,  will  look  on  God  as  manifesting  himself 
in  external  nature,  and  in  our  intuitions,  and  in 
history  as  influenced  by  his  spirit ;  and  my  God  will 
be  thus  revealed  to  me  with  more  fulness  than  he 
could  be  if  I  had  only  one  of  these  three  personal 
revelations  of  himself.  In  each  of  them  he  says 
what  he  does  not  say  elsewhere.  Science  must  be 
hungry  to  hear  all  that  all  facts  say. 

God  is  a  person  in  each  one  of  these  revelations. 


296  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

He  is  a  person  in  the  strict  sense,  as  seen  in  external 
nature.  As  seen  in  our  Lord,  he  is  a  person  in  the 
strict  sense.  As  revealed  in  the  moral  law,  he  is  a 
person  in  the  strict  sense.  But  there  are  not  tJiree  per- 
sons :  he  is  one  person  in  the  strict  sense  ;  for  natural 
lato  is  a  unit  in  the  universe,  and  reveals  but  one  ivill. 
Tliree  revelations  of  God  are  all  one  person,  although 
in  each  revelation  he  is  a  person.  Now,  is  that  mys- 
tical ?  or  does  that  straightforward  use  of  the  scien- 
tific method  give  a  richer  view  of  human  history,  a 
richer  view  of  the  human  soul,  a  richer  view  of 
external  nature,  than  mere  deism,  or  theism,  or  ma- 
terialism, or  pantheism,  however  fortified  by  modern 
science,  can  present  to  you? 

Thus  far,  gentlemen,  I  have  asked  you  to  notice 
only  what  is  involved  in  Theodore  Parker's  admis- 
sion that  a  personal  God  is  immanent  in  all  matter 
and  mind.  On  this  point,  as  on  so  many  others, 
Theodore  Parker  failed  to  carry  out  consistently  his 
own  principles,  and  fell  into  error  not  so  much 
through  a  wrong  direction  as  through  haste,  and  in- 
completeness of  research.  If,  my  friends,  I  must  at 
this  point,  to  save  time,  drop  analytical  discussion, 
and  give  personal  conviction,  let  me  say  that  Theo- 
dore Parker's  scheme  of  thought,  melodious  as  that 
one  feebly-struck  note  of  the  Divine  Immanence  in 
mind  and  matter  is,  compares  to  me  with  Christian- 
ity as  water  compares  with  wine.  Tennyson  makes 
one  of  his  characters  say  to  another, 

"  All  thy  passions  matched  with  mine 
Are  as  moonlight  unto  sunlight, 
And  as  water  unto  wine." 


OUTLOOK   ITON   THE  DIVIXE  NATURE.         297 

So  I  aver,  in  the  name  of  the  precision  of  the  sci- 
entific method,  that  any  scheme  of  tliought  not  Chris- 
tian, as  matched  with  Christianity,  and  tested  fairly 
by  intuition,  instinct,  syllogism,  and  ages  of  experi- 
ment, is  as  moonlight  matched  with  sunlight,  or  as 
water  matched  with  wine. 

I  want  supremely  such  a  view  of  religious  truth 
as  shall  set  me  at  rest  about  my  irreversible  record 
of  sin.  [Applause.]  I  want  such  a  view  of  God  as 
shall  present  him  as  an  atoning  God,  on  whom  I  can- 
not look  without  the  regeneration  of  my  own  nature 
through  gratitude,  and  on  whom  I  can  look,  and  yet, 
for  his  sake,  be  at  peace. 

Why  do  the  ages  cling  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Trinity?  Perhaps  their  wants  have  been  much  like 
yours  and  mine.  Is  the  truth  of  the  Divine  Trinity 
dear  to  us,  because  it  is  a  fine  piece  of  philosophical 
speculation  ?  Ah,  gentlemen,  you  know  life  too  well 
to  think  that  eighteen  centuries  have  offered  up  their 
martyrdoms,  and  the  personal  careers,  which,  not  end- 
ing at  the  stake,  have  been  bound  to  the  stake  per- 
haps through  the  better  part  of  the  time  from  birth 
to  death,  and  that  these  ages  have  had  nothing  more 
than  philosophy  behind  them.  Great  human  organic 
wants  are  revealed  by  the  reception  the  world  has  given 
to  the  deepest  religious  truths.  We  knoiv  ive  are  going 
hence.  We  wish  to  go  hence  in  peace.  We  want  a  reli- 
gion that  can  wash  Lady  3Iacbeth's  red  right  hund. 
We  need  to  know  that  an  atonement  has  been  pro- 
vided, such  that  we  may  look  on  all  God's  attributes, 
and  then  in  his  merit,  not  in  our  own,  be  at  peace 


298  TEANSCENDENTALISM. 

here  and  in  that  Unseen  Holy  into  which  it  is  scien- 
tifically sure  that  iill  men  haste. 

Religious  science  never  teaches  that  personal  de- 
merit is  or  can  be  transferred  from  an  individual, 
finite  personality  to  God.  That  is  a  ghastly  error 
which  has  been  charged  to  Christianity  in  every  age, 
and  nowhere  more  audaciously  or  inexcusably  than 
in  this  city.  [Applause.]  It  is  one  of  the  most 
monstrous  of  misconceptions,  one  of  the  most  unphi- 
losophical  of  all  the  hideous  caricatures  set  up  by 
Theodore  Parker  before  the  public  gaze,  that  Chris- 
tianity teaches  that  personal  demerit  or  blame-worthi- 
ness may  be  taken  off  one  soul,  and  put  upon  another, 
and  that  one  an  innocent  being.  We  hold  nothing  of 
the  sort;  but  we  have  been  taught  that  there  is 
revealed  in  Christianity  a  view  of  God  which  repre- 
sents him  as  substituting  chastisement  for  punish- 
ment, and  as  thus  making  possible  the  peace  of  all 
who  are  loyal  to  him ;  and  this  has  been  the  regen- 
erating influence  which  has  brought  the  human  spirit 
to  the  highest  summits  it  has  ever  attained ;  so  that, 
both  by  ages  of  experience  and  by  philosophy,  we 
know  that  this  central  portion  of  the  Christian 
scheme  of  thought  is  adapted  to  man's  deepest 
wants.     [Applause.] 

If  you  deny  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  you  must 
deny  the  whole  central  portion  of  this  crowned  sys- 
tem of  truth,  in  all  its  philosophical  glory  and  in  all 
its  prolonged  and  multiplex  breadth  of  power  in  hu- 
man experience.  There  was  nothing  so  touching,  when 
Professor  Huntington  of  Harvard  University  yonder 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE   DIVINE   NATURE.         299 

turned  toward  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as  his  proc- 
lamation of  the  "  life,  comfort,  and  salvation  "  which 
burst  upon  his  vastly  enlarged  horizon  as  he  attained 
at  once  the  scientific,  the  biblical,  and  the  only  his- 
torically radiant  point  of  view.  (See  Huntington, 
Archbishop,  Christian  Believing  and  Living.^ 

Only  an  undiluted  Christianity  gives  such  a  view 
of  God,  that  we  can  be  true  to  the  scientific  method, 
and  yet  at  peace  with  all  his  attributes. 

Gentlemen,  you  will  not  soon  drive  out  of  human 
nature  the  desire  to  go  hence  in  peace.  You  will  not 
soon  remove  from  human  nature  the  feeling  it  has 
exhibited  in  every  age,  that  peace  does  not  come 
even  when  we  reform.  You  will  not  soon  change 
the  natural  operations  of  conscience.  You  will  not 
soon  cause  the  past  to  be  reversible.  You,  therefore, 
■will  not  soon  make  the  atonement  any  thing  other 
than  a  desire  of  all  nations.  But,  until  you  have 
done  all  these  things,  there  will  be  life,  there  will  be 
a  wholly  natural  and  abounding  vitality,  in  that  exhi- 
bition of  God's  nature  to  man,  which  represents  him 
as  an  atoning  God,  and  as  a  person  who  was,  and  is, 
and  is  to  be  with  us,  because  one  with  Him  who  made 
heaven  and  earth,  and  with  Him  who  speaks  in  con- 
science at  this  hour,  and  who,  from  eternity  to  eter- 
nity, is  our  Saviour  and  our  Lord. 

But,  next,  I  want  in  my  view  of  religion  some- 
thing that  will  bring  me  into  harmony  with  all  exact 
research.  I  want  no  mysticism,  no  mediievalism, 
no  doctrine  supported  simply  by  the  schools,  or  of 
doubtful  worth  under  the  microscope  and  the  scalpel. 


300 


TRANSCENDENT  AI.ISM. 


I  find  it  beyond  controversy,  as  Theodore  Parker 
held,  that  a  Personal  God  is  immanent  in  matter  and 
mind.  It  is  beyond  all  debate  that  there  is  a  Holy 
Person  revealed  by  the  moral  law.  I  want  a  God 
who  shall  be  one  in  history,  in  external  nature,  and 
in  my  intuitions ;  and  I  turn  to  Christianity,  and  I 
find  a  breadth  of  outlook  more  than  equal  to  the 
loftiest  philosophical  demand.  I  read  that  He  who  is 
the  light  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world,  that  is,  the  Personal  God  who  is  revealed 
in  conscience,  is  also  He  whose  light  shone  in  the 
darkness,  and  the  darkness  comprehended  it  not ; 
and  who  was  in  the  world  which  was  made  by  him, 
and  the  world  knew  him  not.  He  who  speaketh  in 
the  still  small  voice  is  he  who  spoke,  and  who  yet 
speaks,  as  never  man  spoke.  If  we  do  not  force 
upon  the  Scriptures  our  own  narrowness  of  thought, 
we  find  that  science  and  Scripture  are  agreed,  for 
both  make  God  perfect  and  one ;  and,  according  to 
the  Scriptures,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  Christ's  continued 
life. 

What  are  the  great  proofs  in  Scripture  that  God  is 
presented  to  us  as  triunity  in  unity  ?  What  are  the 
great  biblical  proofs  that  God  is  triune  ?  What  are 
a  few  of  the  tremorless  bases  of  conviction  that  the 
Trinity  is  taught  in  the  New  Testament  ?  I  hold, 
my  friends,  that  it  is  a  cheap  reply  to  the  assertion 
that  the  Trinity  is  taught  in  the  New  Testament,  to 
say  that  the  word  is  not  there.  The  word  "  Chris- 
tianity "  is  not  there ;  the  word  "  Deity "  is  not 
there ;  the  word  "  humanity  "  is  not  there.     The  ques- 


OUTLOOK  UPON   THE   DIVINE  NATURE.         301 

tion  is,  whether  it  is  not  taught  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  God  is  one.  You  say,  Yes.  If  it  be  taught 
in  the  Xew  Testament  that  God  is  one,  and  that 
each  of  the  three  subsistences  is  God,  the  Trinity- 
is  taught  there  implicitly,  though  not  explicitly. 
After  ages  of  debate,  you  know  what  nine  out  of 
ten  of  the  devoutest  and  acutest  think  the  New 
Testament  teaches  in  the  baptismal  formula  and  the 
apostolical  benediction,  two  incisive  biblical  summa- 
ries of  Christian  truth.  The  direction  to  the  apos- 
tles as  to  baptism  was,  "  Baptize  all  nations  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,"  a  Triune 
Name,  no  distinction  being  made  between  these  three. 
So,  too,  the  benediction  was  pronounced  in  the 
Triune  Name  :  "  May  the  love  of  God,  the  grace  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  communion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you."  You  have  been  told  that 
Neander  says  that  there  is  not  a  passage  in  the  New 
Testament  which  asserts  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
explicitly ;  and  Neander  does  say  so :  but  he  says  a 
great  deal  more  ;  namely,  that  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment contains  the  doctrine  implicitly.  [Applause.]" 
"  In  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,"  he  writes,  "  God 
becomes  known  as  Creator,  Redeemer,  and  Sanctifier, 
in  which  threefold  relation  the  whole  Christian 
knowledge  of  God  is  completely  announced.  Ac- 
cordingly all  is  herein  embraced  by  the  apostle  Paul, 
when,  in  pronouncing  the  benediction,  he  sums  up  all 
in  the  formula,  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
God  as  the  living  God,  the  God  of  mankind,  and  the 


302  TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

God  of  the  church,  can  be  ^truly  known  in  this  way 
only.  This  shape  of  Theism  presents  the  perfect 
mean  between  the  wholly  extra-mundane  God  of 
deism  and  the  God  brought  down  into,  and  con- 
founded with,  the  world  of  pantheism.  This  mode 
of  the  knowledge  of  God  belongs  to  the  peculiar 
science  of  Theism  and  the  Theocracy"  (Neander, 
Jllst.  of  the  Chr.  Mel.  and  Ch.,  Torrey^s  trans,  i.  572). 

As  many  windows,  gentlemen,  as  there  are  facts,  let 
us  use  when  we  gaze  on  religious  truths.  Your  mere 
theism  shuts  me  up  to  one  window.  You  will  not 
let  me  look  on  all  quarters  of  the  sky.  You  shut 
your  ej^es  to  the  light  when  you  will  not  recognize 
what  Napoleon  saw  in  history.  I  want  no  pulpit  that 
is  not  built  on  rendered  reasons ;  but  I  must  be  allowed 
to  find  reasons  wherever  they  exist,  whether  the  heavens 
stand  or  fall. 

Let  research,  with  the  four  tests  of  intuition, 
instinct,  experiment,  and  syllogism,  have  free  course, 
and  I  am  content.  For  fear  that  your  conclusions 
may  be  a  little  broader  than  you  like,  you  will  not 
fail  to  gaze  on  the  evidence  which  convinces  Neander 
that  the  outcome  of  all  looking  into  the  Scriptures 
and  into  mere  reason  must  be  a  belief  in  a  Creator, 
in  a  Redeemer,  and  in  a  Sanctifier,  the  three  one 
God,  personal,  omnipresent,  and  in  conscience  tangi- 
ble. 

When  I  thus  use  all  my  light,  I  am  delivered  from 
materialism ;  when  I  thus  look  on  God,  I  am  deliv- 
ered from  pantheism. 

Whoever  searches  the  Bible  in  the  spirit  of  those 


OUTLOOK  UPON   THE  DIVINE  NATURE.         803 

who  wrote  it,  and  of  the  martyrs,  will  be  kept  free 
from  an  utterl}'-  unscientific  narrowness  which  feels 
that  God  in  Christ  loas  rather  than  that  He  is.  We 
are  not  abreast  of  our  privileges  when  we  live  always 
in  Judaea.  [Applause.]  The  Scriptures  are  a  map  of 
the  universe,  and  not  of  Palestine  merely.  If  we  are 
full  of  their  spirit,  the  wings  of  philosophy  will  tire 
us  only  by  their  tardiness,  and  narrow  range  of  flight. 

There  are  in  all  ages,  and  particularl}^  in  this  age 
of  special  studies,  the  most  terrific  dangers  in  a  frag- 
mentary view  of  God.  I  want  this  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  to  save  me  from  fragmentariness  of  outlook 
upon  the  Divine  Nature.  I  will  not  allow  myself  to 
see  God  merely  in  my  intuitions,  and  shut  up  the 
windows  of  external  nature  and  of  history ;  for  thus 
I  may  easily  drop  down  into  pantheistic  individu- 
alism, which,  with  supreme  felicity  of  speech,  your 
brave,  broad,  and  massive  Thomas  Hill  calls  Egothe- 
ism.  [Applause.]  (See  Hill,  ex-president  of  Har- 
vard University,  The  Theology  of  the  Sciences,  1877.) 

Neander  says  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  im- 
plies that  of  the  Theocracy,  or  of  a  government  of 
God  in  the  universe  and  in  national  history.  Remem- 
ber, gentlemen,  that  our  fathers  came  here  avowedly 
to  found  a  Theocracy.  What  did  that  mean  ?  A 
state  of  which  natural  law  and  revelation  together, 
shining  under,  in,  and  about  legislation,  should  be 
the  masters ;  a  state  where  what  can  be  known  of 
God  by  reason  on  the  one  side,  and  revelation  on  the 
other,  should  lock  its  two  hands  around  the  neck  of 
all  vice,  and  throttle  whatever  would  throttle  the 


304  TRANSCEXDEXTALISM. 

Christian  well-being  of  the  poorest  or  the  highest, 
and  should  thus  build  up  in  history  a  state  fit  to  be 
called  at  once  natural  and  God's  own.  When  the 
Jesuits  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  they 
intended  to  found  a  Theocracy.  The  great  dream 
that  lay  behind  Milton's  and  Cromwell's  and  Hamp- 
den's thoughts  and  dee.ds  was,  that  human  legislation 
should  be  a  close  copy  of  the  divine  and  natural  law. 
At  the  point  of  view  to  which  exact  research  has  now 
brought  us,  Ave  must  assert  that  the  fact  of  the 
Divine  Immanence  in  matter  and  mind  makes  the 
world  and  nations  a  Theocracy  ;  and  that  politics  and 
social  life,  no  less  than  philosophy,  must  beware  of 
fragmentary  outlooks  on  the  Divine  Nature.  Richter 
said,  "  He  who  was  the  Holiest  among  the  mighty, 
and  the  Mightiest  among  the  holy,  has,  with  his 
pierced  hand,  lifted  heathenism  off  its  hinges,  and 
turned  the  dolorous  and  accursed  centuries  into  new 
channels,  and  now  governs  the  ages."  History,  the 
illuminated  garment  of  God ;  the  church,  Christ's 
Temple,  —  did  you  ever  hear  of  the  former  in  the 
name  of  science,  or  of  the  latter  in  the  name  of 
Christianity?  But  to  your  Titanic  Richter  the  two 
are  one.  De  Tocqueville  affirms  anxiously  that  men 
never  so  much  need  to  be  theocratic  as  when  they 
are  the  most  democratic.  Democracy  will  save  itself 
by  turning  into  a  Theocracy,  or  ruin  itself  by  not 
doing  so.     [Applause.] 

Transfigure  society  with  Richter's  thought.  Satu- 
rate the  centuries  with  the  certainty  of  the  Divine 
Personal  Immanence  in  matter  and  mind.     Do  this, 


OUTLOOK   UPON   THE  DIVINE  NATURE.         805 

and,  in  the  name  of  science  itself,  tlie  laboring  ages 
will  slowl}-  learn,  not  merely  admiration,  but  adora- 
tion, of  one  God,  incontrovertibly  known  in  external 
nature,  history,  and  conscience  as  Creator,  as  Re- 
deemer, as  Sanctifier.  When  they  touch  the  hem  of 
the  garment  of  a  personal  God  thus  apprehended, 
and  never  till  then,  will  they  be  healed  of  the  meas- 
ureless evils  arising  from  fragmentariness  of  outlook 
upon  the  Divine  Nature.  Let  the  forehead  of  sci- 
ence, in  the  name  of  Christianity,  bow  down  upon 
the  moral  law  as  the  beloved  disciple  did  upon  our 
Lord's  bosom.  Let  Richter  lead ;  and  a  time  will 
come  when  all  clear  "thought,  all  political  action,  all 
individual  growth,  will  call  out :  Glor}^  be  to  God 
revealed  in  external  nature  ;  glory  be  to  God  revealed 
in  Christ  and  the  church  ;  glory  be  to  God  revealed 
in  Conscience  !  To  this  secular  voice  the  church 
will  answer,  in  words  which  have  already  led  eighteen 
centuries,  and  science  will  add  at  last  her  momentous 
acclaim  ;  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son, 
and  to  the  Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without  end. 
[Applause.] 


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